United States Drug Enforcement Administration

WASHINGTON, DC – On October 28, 2023, the community once again emptied their medicine cabinets to help dispose of old, unwanted, and expired medications. Nationwide, DEA and its law enforcement partners collected 599,897 pounds of unneeded medications at 4,675 collection sites nationwide.

Locally, the Washington Division, which includes the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) collected 27,656 pounds between 303 locations. 

Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Division, commented that “our team is grateful for the collaboration and hard work demonstrated by our local and state partners in successfully establishing and managing more than 300 collection sites. Their efforts have made a significant contribution to creating a safer and healthier environment for everyone. By disposing of these substances responsibly, we are taking a crucial step towards preventing them from being misused or ending up in the hands of those who could use them for illegal activities.”

For more than a decade, DEA’s National Prescription Take Back Day has removed almost 17.9 million pounds of unneeded medications from communities across the country. According to a report published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a majority of people who use prescription medication for a nonmedical purpose obtained that medication from a family member or friend. Removing unnecessary medications from the home can help prevent situations involving; not taking medication as intended or dosed; taking someone else’s prescription; and taking the medicine for euphoric effects rather than medicinal purposes.

DEA continues to expand opportunities to make safe disposal of medications more accessible nationwide. We encourage people to remove unnecessary medications from their home regularly and dispose of it at one of the nearly 17,000 permanent drug-drop boxes located in communities across the country. Those locations can be found here. Safe medication disposal receptacles along with DEA Take Back events provide families easy, no-cost opportunities to get rid of unnecessary medicines stored in the home.

Complete results for DEA’s fall National Prescription Drug Take Back Day are available at Take Back Day (dea.gov).