Update for April 30
The final tallies are in from the Seattle Police Department for the April 28 Drug Take Back Day, and the numbers show southwest Seattle residents took the opportunity to safely dispose of unused prescription drugs to heart. Here are the results, by precinct:

Southwest Precinct (West Seattle area): 238.45 pounds, accounting for 34 percent of the citywide total

West Precinct: 170.70 pounds

South Precinct: 43.55 pounds

East Precinct: 67.95 pounds

North Precinct: 176.50 pounds

Total: 697.15 pounds

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Original post on April 26
Press release from Seattle Police

On April 28 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm the Seattle Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public another opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. Bring your medications for disposal to any one of the five Seattle Police Department precincts. Find out which one is closest by visiting our precinct map page at http://www.seattle.gov/police/maps/precinct_map.htm and clicking on one of the precinct icons. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.

**For West Seattle and White Center, the Southwest Precinct at 2300 S.W. Webster St. will accept unused drugs from 10 to 2.***

Any type of prescription and/or over the counter medications are acceptable collections. intra-venous solutions, injectibles, syringes, or medical waste WILL NOT be collected. We encourage that any identifying information from the prescription label be removed either by removing the entire label or blacking out the information with a permanent marker.

Last October, Americans turned in 377,080 pounds – 188.5 tons- of prescription drugs at over 5,300 sites operated by the DEA and nearly 4,000 state and local law enforcement partners. In its three previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners took in almost a million pounds- nearly 500 tons- of pills.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabints are highly susceptible to diversion, misues, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the numbers of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines-flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash-both pose potential safety and health hazards.

Four days after the first event, Congress passed the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an “ultimate user” of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by the Attorney General to accept them. The Act also allows the Attorney General to authorize long term care facilities to dispose of their residents’ controlled substances in certain instances. DEA is drafting regulations to implement the Act, a process that can take as long as 24 months. Until new regulations are in place, local law enforcement agencies like the Seattle Police Department and the DEA will continue to hold prescription drug take-back events every few months.