PORTLAND — At pharmacies, in parking lots and at police stations throughout the state, bags and bottles of pills were discarded today as part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

Additional Photos

Emily Barker, right, residence coordinator for the Iris Network, hands in a box of medication today to Lauren Manney, left, and Mirna Zhou at the College of Pharmacy at the University of New England in Westbrook. Barker was handing in medications of people who live in the Iris Networks residential facility to Manney and Zhou, who are first year students of UNE's pharmacy program. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Two Rite Aid pharmacies in Portland had collection boxes monitored by police officers from 10 a.m to 2 p.m.

The purpose of the drug disposal program is to keep the drugs away from people who might abuse them, and to keep them from accumulating in waterways, which happens when they’re flushed down the toilet.

Sgt. Charles Libby said a few dozen people had been by to drop off their drugs at the Rite Aid at 290 Congress St.

One dropped off a trash bag of prescription pills, while others bought just a couple of bottles and “everything in between,” he said.

Pauli Daniels, who lives on the Eastern Promenade, brought a plastic grocery bag with prescription drugs that she said she stopped taking.

“I don’t want them hanging around the house,” she said. “I have grandchildren.”