The actress Rose McGowan turned herself in to the authorities in suburban Washington on Tuesday to face a charge of felony drug possession, the authorities said.

Ms. McGowan, who has been outspoken in condemning sexual harassment and assaults of women in Hollywood, surrendered to the police on a months-old arrest warrant involving a flight she took to Washington Dulles International Airport. The police said she left personal items behind on a United Airlines plane on Jan. 20, and that they had tested positive for narcotics.

Ms. McGowan, 44, was placed under arrest by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia and was later released on a $5,000 bond. The charge, a Class 5 felony, carries a maximum penalty of up to a year in prison.

The warrant was issued in February but did not become public until last month, after Ms. McGowan had started to speak about sexual misconduct in Hollywood and a 1997 hotel room encounter she said she had had with Harvey Weinstein. She had declined to describe what occurred with Mr. Weinstein but later described her experience, on Twitter, as rape.