{"id":893816,"date":"2026-10-25T05:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T05:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/893816\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T05:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T05:48:13","slug":"operation-medicine-cabinet-collects-300-pounds-of-unused-medications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/893816\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Operation Medicine Cabinet\u2019 collects 300 pounds of unused medications"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; Saturday marks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dea.gov\/takebackday\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dea.gov\/takebackday\">National Drug Take Back Day<\/a> and local authorities gathered at Costco in Tallahassee to help people safely dispose of unused medications.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Leon County Sheriff\u2019s Office (LCSO), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Southern Waste Information Exchange teamed up for \u201cOperation Medicine Cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The event gives people a safe and free way to get rid of expired, unused or unneeded prescription medications to help prevent drug misuse and improper disposal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">At last check, organizers said they collected 300 pounds of drugs at their site at Costco.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-center\">More Tallahassee news:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Gene Jones, CEO of the Southern Waste Information Exchange, says the event also helps educate people about the dangers of improperly disposing of medications.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe want to make sure they are not flushed down the drain, especially older generations like me has been taught to push, take their meds and flush them down the toilet; that\u2019s what we don\u2019t want. A lot of the wastewater treatment centers or facilities are not designated to handle some of the prescription drugs,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Once the medications are collected, Jones says they are turned over to the DEA for proper disposal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/10\/24\/operation-medicine-cabinet-collects-300-pounds-unused-medications\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; Saturday marks National Drug Take Back Day and local authorities gathered at Costco in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[70214,97,55781,374778,243,374286,374779,374780],"class_list":["post-893816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-dea","tag-health","tag-lcso","tag-leon-county-sheriff-office","tag-medication","tag-national-drug-take-back-day","tag-operation-medicine-cabinet","tag-swix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}