The city dump cannot legally take prescription medication, or used needles or syringes. Putting such things into the water supply is not considered a good idea either.

And so those antibiotics for the infamous strep throat of 2006, and those last three codeine pills from last year’s broken arm just sit in the back of the medicine cabinet ... and didn’t that aspirin bottle expire a decade ago?

To raise awareness about the dangers of outdated or unused medicines, the Santa Barbara county Sheriff’s Department, along with the county Department of Public Works, in conjunction with several municipal law enforcement agencies, have launched Operation Medicine Cabinet, currently traveling the county, offering a safe disposal location.

The collection dates include: Today from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Santa Maria Wells Fargo Bank parking lot, 1450 S. Broadway; and Tuesday, from noon to

7 p.m. in the parking lot of Mission Santa Ines in Solvang.

Last Thursday, Operation Medicine Cabinet came to Lompoc.

“We’ve had four people come up, before we even opened up,” said crime prevention specialist Pamela Relyea, of the sheriff’s department.

The operation has found clogged medicine cabinets up and down the county, with 754 pounds dropped off so far from previous collections that took place in Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Orcutt and Goleta.

Operation Medicine Cabinet was accepting everything, including unwanted herbal supplements and vitamins. Upwards of 90 percent of the dropped off materials were controlled substances, according to Relyea.

Drugs, including Ritalin, muscle relaxants and most pain killers count as controlled substances, Relyea said.

“For us, it’s all about trying to increase public awareness, so people don’t just flush it down the drain,” said Sgt. Brad McVay, sheriff’s department.

The old disposal suggestion of flushing away old pills and medications has fallen out of favor in recent years, Relyea said, because public works departments were seeing an increase in levels of antibiotics and steroids in municipal water supplies.

“We don’t have any filters for all those things,” Relyea said.

“Prescription drugs are No. 2, next to marijuana as the drug of abuse for adolescents,” Relyea said, who added that cleaning out the cabinet could help parents keep drugs out of the hands of teens.

Relyea said old drugs can also pose a danger for well-meaning adults, who use pain medication, or other drugs for things beyond what they were initially prescribed for, thinking “it’s a prescription drug so it must be safe.”

“We’re seeing a rise in medical emergency calls from prescription drug complications for that adult age range,” Relyea said.

After the countywide mobile drop-offs end, McVay and Relyea said each sheriff’s department station in Santa Barbara will have a permanent drop box for expired and unused medications.