Edhat Staff
Source: Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
After eight years of helping Santa Barbara County safely dispose of more than 50,000 pounds of unwanted medicine and prescriptions through its Operation Medicine Cabinet program, the Sheriff’s Office is pleased to inform our community members of a new stewardship program that is making the disposal process more convenient and efficient than ever before. In March, Santa Barbara County MED-Project took over the medicine disposal program and has since installed kiosks at 18 locations throughout Santa Barbara County. In the near future, the kiosks will also be installed in 15 CVS store locations in Santa Barbara County. In accordance with Drug Enforcement Agency regulations for the program, the kiosks are located inside the facilities and are only accessible when the facility is open.
The program is paid for by the pharmaceutical companies that sell product here in our county and the service is provided free of charge to community members. Disposal of me dications in drop boxes assures medications are not misused by individuals who were not prescribed the medication. Collecting and destroying medication responsibly can also help reduce the number of opioid related tragedies. The program also ensures protection of the environment with the elimination of flushing unwanted medicines down the drain, or having them exposed to theft in the trash.
In June of 2016, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors passed the Santa Barbara County Safe Drug Disposal Ordinance. The ordinance requires any producer of prescription and over-the-counter drugs offered for sale in Santa Barbara County to participate in an approved drug stewardship program for collection and disposal of unwanted medicines. The ordinance is based on the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility Stewardship (EPRS) which makes the product manufacturers fiscally responsible for the full costs of their products including disposal. Santa Barbara County Enviro nmental Health Services (EHS) oversees this program. Today, MED-Project has more than 300 kiosks in sites across Washington State and Northern California.
Here is the current list of Santa Barbara County kiosk locations which includes seven Sheriff’s Office facilities:
Sheriff’s Headquarters 4434 Calle Real Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara County Mail Jail 4436 Calle Real Santa Barbara
Isla Vista Foot Patrol 6504 Trigo Road Isla Vista
Solvang Sheriff’s Station 1745 Mission Drive Solvang
Buellton Sheriff’s Station 140 West Highway 264 Buellton
Lompoc Sheriff’s Station 3500 Harris Grade Lompoc
Santa Maria Sheriff’s Station 812-A Foster Road Santa Maria
San Ysidro Pharmacy Inc 1498 E Valley Rd Montecito
Medicine Shoppe No 793 3605 State St Santa Barbara
Sansum Clinic Prescription Rx 317 W Pueblo St Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara Police 215 East Figueroa St Santa Barbara
Public Health Pharm SB 345 Camino Del Remedio Santa Barbara
Lompoc Valley Medical Center 1515 East Ocean Avenue Lompoc
SBC Public Health Pharm Lompoc 301 N R Street Lompoc
Stars Pharmacy 830 Guadalupe Street Guadalupe
Hometown LTC Pharmacy 1450 West McCoy Santa Maria
La Joya Pharmacy 1115 West Main St Ste E1 Santa Maria
Public Health Pharm 2115 Centerpoint Parkway Santa Maria
The link to Santa Barbara County EHS safe meds disposal page is: http://cosb.countyofsb.org/
For more information on MED-Project go to: https://med-project.org/
The Sheriff’s Office wants to thank everyone who was a part of our successful Operation Medicine Cabinet program, which was started in 2010. While we are proud of the efforts that went into this important endeavor, we are pleased there is now an improved and more accessible medicine disposal program for our community members.
