Three years ago, Arizona City was the first community anywhere to have a conveniently accessible, yet totally secure, expired prescription medication drop box for local citizens. 

Since then, over 22 of these drop boxes have popped up throughout Pinal County. And since the program began in 2012, more than one million pills have been collected for safe disposal. The phenomenal success of the program continues to attract national attention to Pinal County.

In late April, the Arizona City drop box, along with seven others around Pinal County, garnered some not-so-positive attention from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) when officials at Regional Fire and other rural fire districts were informed by the federal agency that expired prescription medication drop boxes were only allowed to be located in law enforcement agency offices, specifically certified locations and authorized long-term care facilities. Despite the good intentions of the program, the DEA said that prescription medication drop boxes could no longer be located at community centers, local libraries or fire stations.

AC Fire Chief Jeff Heaton complied with the DEA’s sudden policy change, and the local drop box was removed from the AC Fire Station (a perfectly secure facility that is manned 24-7 and features about a dozen closed circuit security cameras in addition to keypad entry security doors) and relocated to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office substation just a few hundred feet away.

For three years the drop box program ran smoothly and securely, successfully preventing hundreds of pounds of prescription medications off the streets and out of the hands of minors and those seeking to abuse the medications. 

The problem now is that people who stop at the PCSO substation to find no one there  have been dropping off bags of expired medications on the pavement right outside the substation. The situation has arisen due to the fact that the sheriff’s substation is not open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And since there is no regular office staff it is impossible set up a weekly schedule of office hours for drop box availability inside the substation.

AC Fire District Business Manager Pepper Corbin said that earlier last week someone, after being unable to find anyone at the sheriff’s substation, dropped off a plastic grocery bag full of prescription medications in front of the fire station.

Corbin said that she knew of at least two other bags of medications that had been left outside the PCSO substation the prior week.

Like the proverbial white elephant in the room, the situation created by the DEA’s sudden order to relocate certain prescription drop boxes from fire stations (presumably to increase security and lessen the chances of any dangerous medication finding its way into the hands of those who would possibly abuse or try to illegally resell the drugs), has had the complete opposite effect. In fact, the DEA’s recent order has directly resulted in prescription medications being dropped off right out in the open, on public sidewalks in front of the fire station and PCSO substation where they could be found by anyone who happens to walk by.

Fire Chief Heaton said the situation could best be resolved by having the drop box installed along an outside wall at the PCSO substation (like an ATM machine). This way, PCSO would not have to schedule specific office hours for a staff member(s) to be present for the public to use the drop hox.

The DEA policy change unfortunately affected eight prescription drop boxes that had been located inside fire stations, including Arizona City, Gold Canyon, Apache Junction, Oracle, Mammoth and three in San Tan. Hopefully, similar situations have not occurred with any of those prescription medication drop boxes.

The idea for the prescription medication drop boxes originated with the Pinal County Substance Abuse Council, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office as well as other area law enforcement agencies. Also involved in the drop box program is the Behavioral Health Authority (known locally as Cenpatico) which is one of the main organizations that funds various Pinal County coalitions (which includes the Arizona City TRIAD) that work against substance abuse was also a supported. The program is also supported by the Arizona Department of Health Services, the Casa grande Alliance and PGCSC Region V.

Presently there are around 22 of these drop boxes throughout Pinal County, all of which are owned by the PCSO. 

Until the situation with the Arizona City drop box is resolved, residents can drop their expired prescription medications off at drop boxes in Eloy or Casa Grande. The closest location to Arizona City is the drop box at the Eloy Police Department, 630 N. Main Street in Eloy. The lobby at the Eloy Police Department is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

AC residents may also use one of two drop boxes located in Casa Grande, one at the CG Police Department at 520 N. Marshall Street, the other at the CGPD building at 373 E. Val Vista Drive.

Items that can be placed in the medical drop off boxes include: expired prescription medications, prescription patches, prescription ointments, over the counter medications, vitamins and medications for pets. Please note certain items are not accepted, including aerosols, inhalers, needles, hydrogen peroxide, lotions or liquids. 

The items not accepted are clearly marked on the drop-box.

Records at the AC Fire Station show that in December 2014 a total of 40 pounds of prescription medications were dropped off in Arizona City. The totals for 2015 were 28 pounds collected in January, 17 pounds collected in February and 15 pounds in March.