Huge Prescription Drug Round-up

"We call this Operation Safe Medicine Cabinet and you can see from the results this is a huge success," said Saint Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara standing in front of tables covered up by a mountain of prescription medicines. Deputies were stunned when an unused drug turn-in ended in a mass collection that could put a pharmacy to shame. Anything from "Valium, Vycadin, Lortabs, Fentanyl" collected in a six hour period Saturday.

In all, an estimated 100,000 pills collected from people who wanted to properly discard their unused or unwanted drugs.

The sheriff says he organized the operation because prescription medicine deaths are up sharply this year. "The most important part of the operation is identifying prescription drugs like these that are in bags, not in medicine labels or bottles. That could easily be attractive for children," said Mascara.

Authorities are also concerned about a recent home burglary trend. "A couple came to a home pretending to want to buy the house and while they distracted the homeowner, half of the couple went to the bathroom, took some prescription medicines and stole them," said Sgt. Dan Jones.

One bottle was a prescription filled almost 30 years ago. Other meds dated back to the 80's and 90's."We've taken these unused, expired meds of the streets, making it a safer community," said St. Lucie County Fire Chief Ron Parrish. In all 500 people gave their old or unused meds away in exchange for gift cards to various drug stores.

The program was so successful, the sheriff says people can now drop off their medicines Monday through Friday during business hours at Sheriff's Office headquarters on 4700 West Midway Road in Fort Pierce.