Residents can place their unused prescription medications in any drop box Monday through Friday in San Diego county.

NORTH COUNTY–It’s fairly easy to find at least one leftover or expired prescription drug in a pill container gathering dust in the typical medicine cabinet, and some hide multiple unused prescription medications.

Reasons for hanging onto those drugs vary. Some people think hoarding prescription drugs is good insurance in case an old problem flares back up or a family member develops a similar condition. Others keep unneeded prescription drugs around because they don’t know how to dispose of them safely.

However, keeping unused medications makes it easy for the drugs to get into the hands of a drug thief. Using prescription drug drop boxes makes prescription drug disposal as easy as dropping a letter into a mailbox. This is a much-safer option and helps protect people from would-be drug thieves.

Most police departments and sheriff’s stations throughout San Diego County have the secure collection boxes in their lobbies. People can place their unused prescription medications in any drop box Monday through Friday during normal business hours, with no questions asked.

Doing so is important because prescription drug abuse is a growing problem in San Diego County. The San Diego County Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force, which was created to address the issue, identifies using drugs other than as prescribed as the leading cause of addiction and overdose deaths in the county.

A popular misconception is that prescription drugs are relatively safe because they have legitimate medical uses. This myth helps fuel their abuse. Yet figures provided by the task force reveal that 253 San Diego County residents died last year as the result of prescription drug abuse.

Prescription drug abuse often starts at a young age. Underscoring that, results from the 2013 California Healthy Kids Survey revealed that 16.6 percent of 11th graders in San Diego County reported they have used prescription drugs for recreational purposes at least once.

The most commonly abused prescription drugs fall into three categories: opioid painkillers (including Oxycodone, OxyContin and Vicodin), anti-anxiety medications (including Valium and Xanax) and stimulants (including Ritalin and Adderall).

Medicine cabinets can be easy hunting grounds for someone looking for prescription medications to steal and abuse or sell. The list of potential thieves includes teenagers, caregivers, temporary workers and other visitors to the home.

Sneaking a few pills at a time is a popular tactic for staying under the radar.

The entire community’s help is needed to solve the problem. Individuals can do their part by using prescriptions medications only as prescribed, not sharing prescribed medication, storing them securely, and properly disposing of them when they expire or are no longer needed.

A complete list of prescription drug drop boxes is available at http://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/deh/waste/pdf/chd/HHW/Drug%20collection%20box%20brochure%20english%202.pdf.

More information about prescription drug abuse is available at www.sandiegorxabusetaskforce.org.

For help with prescription drug abuse and addiction, call the county’s Access and Crisis Line at (800) 724-7240.