DALY CITY, Calif.—When her father died in 2004, Adrienne Tissier faced the sad task of cleaning out his belongings—clothes, furniture, bags of medication. The drugs, including painkillers and sedatives, prompted a tricky question: Where to toss them?

Tissier, who was aware of the impact pharmaceuticals can have on the environment, checked with local authorities.

“No one seemed to know,” said Tissier.

Tissier was in a position to do something: She was a newly elected member of the board of supervisors of San Mateo County, just south of San Francisco.

The biggest challenge, she found, is a federal law that prohibits anyone from receiving a narcotic or other controlled substance from someone else. Anyone, that is, except a law enforcement agent.

Tissier approached local police and found they wanted to help, in part because local teens were consuming handfuls of whatever pills they could find at “pharma parties.”

It’s a growing problem. A study in Florida found that deaths caused by prescription drugs were three times the number caused by illegal drugs in that state last year.

In California, Tissier had a solution: a dozen white, metal pharmaceutical drop boxes, starting with three refurbished postal collection boxes, were placed outside police and sheriff departments around the county.

The results have been stunning.

In the first year, more than two tons of medications were dropped off. The costs have been less than $7,000, including hauling the drugs to a nearby medical waste disposal company that ships them to out-of-state incinerators specially designed for pharmaceutical waste.

There have been dozens of drug drop-off and collection programs across the U.S., though few have lasted more than several months because of limited funds.

In 2006, a one-day drug return program at 25 locations in Chicago netted 1,600 pounds of medications. Separate one-day takeback programs in Michigan and Milwaukee last year each yielded more than a ton of medicine.