Sheriff Unveils Pill Drop Boxes

People looking to get rid of unused prescription pills will soon be able to dispose of them in new drop boxes provided by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.

One box will be installed in each of the sheriff's three road patrol district headquarters. One will be in Trinity, one will go to New Port Richey and the other will be located in Dade City.

The boxes are meant to help curb access to prescription drugs. Anyone can just show up and drop off their prescription drugs “with no questions asked,” according to the sheriff’s office.

“We just want them off the street,” Sheriff Chris Nocco said in a press conference.

The sheriff's office wants to prevent people from flushing the pills or throwing them in the garbage. Expired and otherwise unused prescriptions, vitamins and herbal medications and over-the-counter and veterinary medicine can be dropped off at the boxes. Needles and liquids cannot. The sheriff’s office then takes them for safe disposal.

Two drop boxes were paid for by the Pasco County Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention. The third comes from the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators.

The new boxes will be installed inside the road patrol headquarters, which will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. by the end of next week, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kevin Doll said.

According to the sheriff's office, in 2010, Pinellas and Pasco Counties led the state in deaths from prescription drug overdoses: 142 died in Pasco and 207 in Pinellas.

Before getting the boxes, the sheriff’s office held scheduled pill drop days in coordination with the Pasco County Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention at the Gulf View Square Mall in Port Richey and The Shops at Wiregrass in Wesley Chapel.

The most recent drop day collected 1,241 pounds of pills and 200 pounds of needles. This earned the Pasco County Sheriff's Office the donation from the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators for having the largest net collected in the national pill drop Aug. 27, according to the sheriff's office.

State Sen. Mike Fasano R-New Port Richey, cited an oft-repeated statistic that seven people die of prescription drug overdose every day in Florida.  He has said that Florida is fighting a pill mill crisis.

“That crisis is being addressed right now in Pasco,” he said

District Headquarter Drop box locations:

• Dade City (34609 State Road 52)
• New Port Richey (7432 Little Road)
• Trinity (11530 Trinity Boulevard)

Pill Drop Day (Saturday, November 5, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. )

• Gulf View Square Mall

9409 Us Highway 19, Suite 781
Port Richey, FL 34668
Overflow parking lot near the sign on US 19

• The Shops at Wiregrass

28211 Paseo Drive
Wesley Chapel, FL 33543
Parking Garage Ground Level