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Community residents poured more than 1,000 bottles of expired or unneeded medications into Drug Free Collier receptacles on Saturday.

Volunteers from the nonprofit organization staffed 10 locations around Collier County throughout the morning and early afternoon for people to safely dispose of the medications under Operation Medicine Cabinet.

Event co-chair Veora Little said the goal is to get the pills out of the hands of children and protect the environment at the same time.

One man was seen emptying 16 bottles of prescription medications into the cardboard box at the Golden Gate Community Center site. His wife’s doctor recently cut the number of pills she was taking dramatically.

Greeting him at the site was Mona Casey.

Her son, Charles, died in September 2006 at age 15 from huffing Freon at a neighbor’s house.

“I realized after that how much I didn’t know about what kids are doing,” said Casey, who brought her daughter, Isabella, a 5th-grader, along with her to the Golden Gate table Saturday afternoon.

“When he passed from (huffing) Freon, we were like ‘What?’. I didn’t know,” she added, scratching out the names on prescription labels to protect the identity of those who used the site. “I started studying more and realized there’s a problem … His death is what inspired me to get involved.

“It changes the way you live.”

After the event, Little explained her involvement.

“We have to change people’s ideas about how they protect their children and the environment,” Little said.

Collier Circuit Judge Lauren Brodie, who volunteered at the event, said more than 75 percent of the juvenile cases that pass through her courtroom are related to substance abuse – illegal and prescription.

“We need to get drugs out of medicine cabinets and increase awareness,” Brodie said as she handed fliers to several women coming to the Community Center to play bridge. “It is a social problem.”

Diana Salazar, a substance abuse prevention specialist who also volunteered at the event, said she has seen the problem first-hand.

“They get (the prescription drugs) from their friends at school,” Salazar said.

Many people leave old medications in their medicine cabinets, throw them out with the trash or flush them down the toilet, putting the drugs into the ground and water supply.

Seven Sabal Palm Elementary students fell ill in December 2006 after taking the anti-anxiety prescription medication Xanax, which one student acquired from his grandmother’s prescription.

After Saturday’s round up, sheriff’s deputies collect the boxes with the medications; the liquids and pills will be transported to the Lee County incinerator, where they are turned into ash after two seconds at 1800 degrees.

With their toxicity neutralized, the ash is then disposed of at the landfill.

The plastic bottles get recycled.

There are two permanent drop sites in the county. The Medical Examiner’s Office accepts controlled substances, which include Dexedrine, Adderall, morphine, OxyContin, Percocet, plus sleep aids like Lunesta and Ambien. The Medical Examiner’s Office also accepts illegal substances without legal repercussion.

“We do not ask any questions,” Little said of the collection program’s anonymity policy.

Naples Recycling Center accepts over-the-counter and prescription medication, such as antibiotics, insulin, and birth control pills, but nothing that is a controlled substance.

“If I got stuff out of one kid’s hands,” Little said. “I feel like we’ve accomplished something.”

Permanent drop-off sites are: Collier County Medical Examiner’s Office, 3838 Domestic Ave., weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Naples Recycling Center, 2640 Enterprise Ave., Tuesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (no controlled substances)

Contact Victoria Macchi at vmmacchi@gmail.com