Sheriff’s Office, DEA And ECUA To Conduct Drug Round Up

April 22, 2011

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority and Walgreens, in coordination with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), will appear at six local Walgreens Drug Stores, and four ECSO precinct locations, Saturday, April 30, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

The “Prescription Drug Round-Up” is a one-day effort between local and federal law enforcement to provide the pubic a site to voluntarily surrender expired, unwanted, unused pharmaceutical controlled substances and other medications for destruction.

Pharmaceuticals are being discovered in our nation’s waters at very low concentrations, and to date, no evidence has been found on human health effects or in the environment. While the sources of these pharmaceuticals may be numerous, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been studying unused pharmaceutical disposal practices. This study was prompted by the concern that potentially large amounts of pharmaceuticals are being flushed or disposed of down the drain, ultimately ending up in rivers, streams and coastal waters.

“Prescription drug abuse is not uncommon in our society and this is an opportunity for members of our community to get rid of their unwanted drugs before they fall into the hands of someone who may abuse or misuse them,” said Sheriff David Morgan.

On September 25, 2010, the “Prescription Drug Round-Up” collected over 500 pounds of unused and unwanted prescription drugs from two collection sites in Escambia County. This year’s event will feature ten locations with deputies from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and officials from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection providing information on the environmental benefits and ways citizens should dispose of prescription drugs properly.

Prescription Drug Round-Up locations will be:

Escambia County Sheriff’s Office

  • Precinct 1, Pensacola Beach, 43 Fort Pickens Road Pensacola Beach
  • Precinct 2, Big Lagoon 12950 Gulf Beach Highway, Pensacola
  • Precinct 5, Cantonment 5844 North Hwy 29 Molino, Florida
  • Precinct 6, Century 7995 North Century Blvd. Century, Florida

Walgreens Locations:

  • 20 West Nine Mile Rd
  • 2237 West Nine Mile Rd
  • 4497 Mobile Hwy
  • 5995 Mobile Hwy
  • 870 E Cervantes
  • 6314 North 9th Ave

Comments

2 Responses to “Sheriff’s Office, DEA And ECUA To Conduct Drug Round Up”

  1. John on April 23rd, 2011 9:47 pm

    dgh, Sounds to me like you are trying to convince us pot is okay because some other people are abusing prescription drugs. That doesn’t hold water. I’ll give you one thing, people that are using prescription drugs are leaving this life at a much faster rate than the pot smokers. Either way, it is still bad news. I guess you will tell me next that the prisons are full of people that just smoked pot?

  2. dgh on April 22nd, 2011 8:10 am

    I saw something on TV the other night where Florida is over prescribing one certain drug at a higher rate than the rest of the nation combined. Yet we demonize pot? We really are a pile of hypocrites when it comes to drugs.