Operation Medicine Cabinet coming Saturday
Operation Medicine Cabinet coming Saturday
SUNCOAST NEWS STAFF REPORT
Operation Medicine Cabinet will give residents a chance to dispose of unused or expired prescriptions at three Sweetbay Supermarket locations in West Pasco on Saturday, May 30.
The Pasco Sheriff’s Office and the local chapter of the Substance Abuse Coalition will be on hand to retrieve the discarded medications, according to Kevin Doll, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office.
Proper disposal prevents the medicines from being stolen or abused, organizers say.
Thrown into the garbage, pharmaceuticals can wind up leeching into the environment. Flushed down a toilet, the medications can contaminate groundwater supplies.
From 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., people can drop off the unwanted pharmaceuticals at the Sweetbay Supermarkets at: 8833 Mitchell Blvd., Trinity; 6400 Massachusetts, New Port Richey; and 9017 S.R. 52, Hudson
“Help us keep these medications from getting into the wrong hands or our water supply,” Doll wrote in a press release.
The Pasco Sheriff’s Office Citizens Academy is assisting the event.
Three other counties are participating in Operation Medicine Cabinet, according to Jennifer Bliska, coalition coordinator for Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention of Pasco.
Medicine cabinets are the No. 1 source for prescription drug abuse among our youth, Bliska explains.
In the 2008 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey of high school seniors, abuse of depressants and prescription pain relievers are greater than for all other illegal drugs, excluding marijuana.
Young people – and adults as well – have been known to abuse cough medicines and over-the-counter sleep medications.
Schools will not tolerate prescription drug abuse and are imposing strict consequences for any violation. Schools often require students to register all of the prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines they must take at school.
Operation Medicine Cabinet provides a safe way of destroying pharmaceuticals through incineration, to avoid polluting the environment.