LA Sheriff’s Department tests drug drop-off program

You can now take your unwanted drugs, both legal and illegal, to the Lomita Sheriff’s Station in the South Bay. That’s where the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is testing out a drug drop-off program. KPCC’s Susan Valot says if it works, the program could spread countywide.

Susan Valot: Two white mailboxes, donated by the U.S. Postal Service, stand outside the Lomita Sheriff’s Station. One’s labeled for prescription, over-the-counter or illegal drugs. The other is for sharp objects, like used needles.

The drop-off boxes are new here. But there’s already a steady flow of locals toting bags and boxes filled with all sorts of pills in their original containers. They dump the containers into the mailboxes.

Valot: The collection boxes are part of the new “Safe Drug Drop-Off” program. A group of South Bay cities came up with the idea. They asked L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca to help.

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

Lee Baca: We’ve all taken prescription drugs. I don’t think there’s one person in the United States that has not take prescription drugs. What do you do when you don’t need them anymore?

You don’t want to flush them down the toilet, you don’t want to flush them down a drain so you’re polluting the waterways, you’re causing for hazardous materials to be injected into the natural forces or natural resources.

Valot: So Baca says you can now take those unwanted drugs to the Lomita Sheriff’s Station and dispose of them anonymously there.

Baca: We want to do about a 30-day experimental test here and see how much our volume is and then we’ll start rolling it out to the other sheriff’s stations, and we’ll have it in 24 stations throughout the county of Los Angeles hopefully before the end of the year.

Valot: The program’s similar to one that started in Manhattan Beach last year. Manhattan Beach Mayor Pro Tem Mitch Ward says his city was the first in Southern California to start such a drug-collection program.

Mitch Ward: The city of Manhattan Beach processes about 50 pounds per month of these drugs that are dropped and left off at our city, and it has not implemented our police force in any way adversely. We’re able to dispose of these drugs in a timely manner just by incinerating them along with our regular illegal drugs that we confiscate from the public.

Valot: Guadalupe Delgado drove a few miles to Lomita from his Wilmington home. He was one of the first to dump drugs he no longer needs into the white bins.

Guadalupe Delgado: You know, I wanted to get rid of them. They’ve been in the house so long and I thought, “Where can I throw them?” I didn’t want to put them in the trash barrel. And so I – when I saw this, I said, “That’s the place! All right!”

Valot: Once the white drop-off bins were in place outside the Lomita Sheriff’s Station, it took only a couple of hours before they were full and ready to be emptied. Sheriff’s department officials say they won’t go after people who drop off illegal drugs. They say they just want to provide a safe way to dispose of it all.