Florence, AZ – Town of Florence Police Department along with the Pinal County Attorney’s Office would like to see all unused, left over or expired prescription drugs out of people’s cabinets and away from our children and our ground water.

In order to protect the public, the Pinal County Attorney’s Office and the Town of Florence will be holding a Prescription Drug Turn-in during the Spring Festival which will take place at Anthem Way & Merrill Ranch Parkway in Florence.

The public is invited to bring their left over prescription drugs to the Pinal County Attorney’s Booth at the event grounds on Saturday, Mar. 12th, 2011, between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.  Florence police officers will be standing by to collect the drugs, which will then be destroyed in a safe and legal manner.

Left over prescription drugs are in all of our cabinets.  They come from prescriptions which we did not finish when we were sick.  Some of these are seriously out of date and others are narcotics which should not be lying around.

One of the serious problems among our youth is the misuse of prescription drugs.  These are normally obtained from left over drugs in parents’ medicine cabinets.  Teens will mix these drugs without knowing that mixing some of them can be dangerous and sometimes fatal. 

Another problem is with adults who either do not pay attention or who are confused and accidentally take the wrong drug.  This, also, can have serious consequences.

These left over medications need to be disposed of.  However, we do not want people to flush them into the water table or to throw them in the trash where they can be recovered by children or others.

For more information call Kostas Kalaitzidis at 520 866 6699 or 520 709 1333 or email at Kostas.kalaitzidis@pinalcountyaz.gov