Events/Announce.

Events/Announcements

PUBLIC NOTICE: The next meeting for the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners’ Criminal Justice, Mental Health, & Substance Abuse Planning Council related to the CJMHSA Reinvestment 2010 Implementation Grant was scheduled by the Planning Council for Thursday, May 31, 2012, beginning at 10am.The meeting will be held in the 2nd Floor Conference Room at the Monroe County Sheriff's Headquarters Building, 5525 College Road, Key West, Fl 33040.

PLEASE NOTE FOR YOUR CALENDARS THAT THIS NEXT DATE IS NOT THE 3RD THURSDAY, OUR USUAL MEETING DATE, BUT IS AT THE END OF MAY AFTER THE MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY.

ADA ASSISTANCE: If you are a person with a disability who needs special accommodations in order to participate in this proceeding, please contact the County Administrator's Office, by phoning (305) 292-4441, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., no later than five (5) calendar days prior to the scheduled meeting; if you are hearing or voice impaired, call “711”.

Sheriff’s Office will accept any and all old or outdated medications, anytime:
Drug Drop program: Environmentally friendly way to dispose of medications

Note: The Sheriff's Office will not accept medications from commercial establishments

Monroe County – The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office drug disposal program has gotten off to a strong start, collecting close to 20,000 pills, and over 1,000 containers (including inhalers, boxes, bottles and droppers) of other medications for safe, environmentally friendly disposal since it began in February of this year. The Sheriff’s Office would like to remind everyone about the program, and the reasons why it is important to dispose of medications in the right way.

County-wide, citizens may bring no-longer-needed prescription drugs and other medications in for disposal, or call and someone will pick the medications up for disposal:

In the Upper Keys, medications will be accepted at the Plantation Key Substation Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. or at the Murray Nelson building in Key Largo on Wednesdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. For pickup, call 305-853-3211 during office hours.
In the Middle Keys, the Marathon Substation will accept any medications Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For pickup, call 305-289-2430 during office hours.
In the Lower Keys, citizens can drop off medications at the Freeman Substation on Cudjoe Key Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or call 305-745-3184 for pickup.

Upper Keys Lt. Nancy Alvarez cautions people who are going to bring their medications in themselves to make sure and keep prescriptions in the prescription bottle to show proof the prescription is legitimately theirs. "Technically, it is illegal to carry prescription medications around without proof it is prescribed to you," she said. "We'd hate to have someone arrested on their way in to drop the stuff off," she said.

People who call to have medications picked up can do so with no questions asked. "Our goal here is to dispose of this stuff properly, not to catch people with illegal pills," Alvarez said.

Proper disposal of prescription and over the counter medications is important. Flushing them down the toilet or sink can introduce dangerous and environmentally damaging substances into the water system; throwing them away in the trash can also introduce them into the environment, and runs the risk of them winding up in the wrong hands. The medications collected by the Sheriff’s Office are burned by Detective Sgt. Bobby Randolph, who operates the Sheriff's Burn Unit and who holds a special license to burn narcotics.