Fairfax County police stations will collect expired medications next Saturday as part of annual event encouraging people to clean out their medicine cabinets.
Fairfax police stations will collect old, used and expired drugs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 26 as part of Operation Medicine Cabinet Cleanout. Reston residents can drop off their used medications at the Reston District Station (1801 Cameron Glen Drive).
“Safe handling and disposal of unused or expired medications prevents abuse, accidental poisonings and helps protect the environment,” police said in a statement.
Needles and medications using pressurized canisters, like asthma inhalers or nasal sprays, will not be accepted.
“Disposal is free, convenient, confidential and safe,” according to the event flyer.
The event is sponsored by the United Prevention Coalition of Fairfax County and the Fairfax County government.
Parents need to be aware that painkiller abuse and heroin use have reached “epidemic levels across the nation,” says the United Prevention Coalition (UPC) of Fairfax County.
Fairfax County is not immune. County stats show that from 2011-14, there was a 22-percent increase in the number of county residents needing services who reported having used heroin, non-prescription methadone, and/or other opiates.
From 2013 to 2014, in Fairfax County, the number of deaths from heroin overdose doubled. The county is also seeing “heroin use trending younger.”
“Fairfax County, like other communities across the commonwealth and nation, has a major public health crisis on our hands with painkiller and heroin abuse,” said UPC President Lisa Adler. “Heroin-related deaths increased 164 percent between 2011 and 2013 in our county alone. We need all citizens to join us in preventing more tragedy that has touched our youth and young adults and countless families.”
The UPC will host a forum on April 13 called “Painkillers & Heroin: Our Community Problem.” Featured speakers include Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Services William A. Hazel Jr., M.D., Fairfax County community leaders, local experts and parents.
The forum is from 7 to 9 p.m. at the FCPS Gatehouse Administration Center, First Floor Café,  8115 Gatehouse Road, Falls Church, VA 22042. The event is free, but registration is requested at www.unifiedpreventioncoalition.org.
Hazel, a physician, serves as the co-chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Prescription Drug and Heroin Abuse and will he the event’s keynote speaker.
Panelists include Kathy Briggs, who will share the story of her 21-year-old son’s death; Jesse Ellis, Fairfax County NCS prevention manager; Sgt. Jim Cox, Fairfax County Police Department narcotics officer; Maria Hadjiyane, Inova Behavioral Health Adult Ambulatory Care, director; and Dr. Husam Alathari, Inova CATS (Comprehensive Addiction Treatment Services) Program medical director; and a local college student in recovery. A question-and-answer session will follow.
Among those available to questions:Â Don Flattery, a member of the Governor’s Task Force; Paul Cleveland, FCPD Commander of Organized Crime and Narcotics; representatives from the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board; and other community leaders working on the Fairfax County opioid addiction prevention plan. Also participating will be Ginny Atwood of the Chris Atwood Foundation, which was formed in memory of her brother who battled addiction for six years.
For more information, visit www.unifiedpreventioncoalition.org.
Photo illustration courtesy of UPC
A Washington, D.C. man has been sentenced to 30 years for his part in the deaths of three Fairfax County residents from heroin overdoses.
Eugene Asomani Williams, also known as “Shine,” 35, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on Friday for conspiring to distribute heroin and possessing a firearm in furtherance of this offense. Prosecutors said at least three people died in Fairfax County as a result of heroin distributed by Williams.
“Williams peddled a dangerous drug and inflicted untold damage to the victims, their families, and our communities,” said U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente. “This case exemplifies the cooperative efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement to combat this pernicious crime.”
Williams pleaded guilty on Jan. 22 of this year to conspiracy to distribute one kilogram or more of cocaine and possession of a firearm during and in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. In a statement filed with the plea agreement, Williams admitted to distributing more than one kilogram of heroin in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia between 2004 and Sept. 26, 2013.
Williams also admitted that Joshua Pearson, 33, of Fairfax County; Timothy Huffman, 23, an active duty soldier at Fort Belvoir; and Kara Schachinger, 22, of Fairfax County. all died as a result of using heroin distributed by Williams, said Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring.
“I have heard firsthand from families about the devastation brought by the loss of a loved one in this wave of heroin-related deaths, and about the strain placed on law enforcement and healthcare professionals as they work to respond to it,” Herring said in a statement.
“Education, prevention and treatment will play a major part in dealing with this emerging threat, but I will also ensure that my office is doing all it can to keep these dangerous drugs, and those who distribute them, off the streets.”
Huffman, Pearson and Schachinger did not know each other, The Washington Post reported. They are linked only because they purchased drugs from Williams.
According to the Post, Williams sold throughout the D.C. area, generally charging $100 for a gram of heroin and meeting customers in the parking lots of gas stations, restaurants and churches, court records show. Schachinger and Huffman met Williams in person to buy their last doses; Pearson got his through a friend, the records show.
“Fairfax County is safer today thanks to the robust partnerships between local, state, and federal law enforcement” said Fairfax County Police Chief Colonel Edwin C. Roessler, Jr. “Today’s sentencing is proof positive these partnerships work against drug traffickers and others who set up criminal enterprises in our region.”
