Sheriff Dana Lawhorne and deputies of the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office joined members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office at The Neighborhood Pharmacy as part of National Prescription Take Back Day April 27 in Del Ray.

“We greatly appreciate our dedicated partners who join us in fighting the opioid problem with initiatives like Drug Take Back,” Lawhorne said. “Thanks to business partners like The Neighborhood Pharmacy, law enforcement leaders like U.S. Attorney Zack Terwilliger and our caring community, we can work together to make Alexandria safer.”

National Prescription Take Back Day is a nationwide semiannual initiative to promote proper disposal of potentially dangerous unused or expired prescription drugs. This year’s collection netted 937,443 pounds of prescription drugs at more than 6,400 sites across the country.

An initiative of the Drug Enforcement Administration, National Prescription Take Back Day has taken in nearly 12 million pounds of pills in its 17 events.

“Our partnerships with federal, state, local and tribal leaders are vital to the success of this important program,” said DEA Chief of Diversion Control John Martin, who participated in the Alexandria event. “We remain committed to providing communities across the United States with safe and convenient drug disposal options.”

The disposal service provided through the DEA is free and anonymous. Only pills and patches are accepted — liquids, needles, or sharps, are not able to be collected. The Neighborhood Pharmacy in Del Ray and Inova Alexandria and Mount Vernon Hospitals serve as year-round collection sites.

“Safely disposing of prescription drugs keeps dangerous narcotics out of the wrong hands and out of our communities,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, who leads the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. “The good people of Alexandria can help us fight the opioid epidemic by ridding their homes of unwanted and unneeded prescription meds and bringing them to a local collection site like the one here in Del Ray.”

The DEA’s next National Prescription Take Back Day will be held Oct. 26.

For more information or to locate a collection site, visit www.deatakeback.com.