CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — UVA Health and the Albemarle County Police Department will be holding separate drug take-back events this weekend as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

The semiannual event, held both in the spring and fall, aims to encourage Americans to safely dispose of expired, unneeded and unwanted medications, offering just under 5,000 drop-off locations nationwide.

UVA Health will be hosting its drop-off event at the patient drop-off lane outside the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center. ACPD will be offering four drop-off locations: Wegman’s, Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital outpatient care center, Sentara Forest Lakes Family Medicine and Crozet Family Medicine. All locations will be accepting drop-offs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“It’s very important for us to dispose of medications, both medically and environmentally safely,” UVA Health’s Dr. Robert Goldstein told Cville Right Now.

Goldstein said disposing medications properly is important from a medical standpoint, as he said 70-80% of medications that find their way to teens are diverted from their or someone else’s home, as well as from an environmental standpoint, as medications that are flushed enter the sewer systems and end up in the waterways.

“All-in-all, the safe collection and safe disposal of these medications [impact] public safety, family safety as well as environmental safety,” he said.

ACPD spokesperson Logan Bogert told Cville Right Now the department is once again participating in the event for similar reasons, with the hopes of keeping medication out of the wrong hands as well as the local waterways

“Every unused and expired drug that’s turned in helps up prevent a tragedy,” she said, “and many people who misuse prescription painkillers do get them from a family member or friend, so this just helps us prevent accidental poisonings, misuse. Even pets or children, if you throw [prescription drugs] in your trash can, could chew them or get a hold of them that way, so this really is just the safest way to dispose of those from your home.”

ACPD does not have a permanent drop-box for prescription drugs throughout the year, but Sentara does at the Martha Jefferson Outpatient Pharmacy. The box is accessible from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or whenever the pharmacy is open.

Every location, both offered by UVA and ACPD, will take prescription and over-the-counter drugs no questions asked, however only the Sentara location will be accepting medical sharps like syringes and needles. They must be placed in a puncture-proof containers, like laundry detergent bottles and red sharp containers, to be accepted.

The UVA Health Pharmacy will also be working with the UVA Police Department as well as UVA’s Department of Anesthesiology’s Pain Management Division and Office of Pain Management and Opioid Stewardship for its event. Goldstein said their collaboration will help ensure all drugs are safely handled.

UVA also offers medication disposal year-round at its eight outpatient pharmacies, including the one inside the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center.

“Every day is drug take back day at UVA,” Goldstein said.