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Photo Courtesy http://www.wikipedia.org/ (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DrugOverdose.jpg)

Drug Overdoses In Santa Clarita On Pace To Increase

Santa Clarita Valley is on pace to see double the drug overdoses from 2014 if the current pace continues, according to Sheriff’s Station officials.


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This year, there have been three confirmed drug overdoses and four more pending confirmation from the Coroner’s Office, Wachsmuth said. Last year there was five total.

One of the main hazards when it comes to drugs and alcohol is when people who are intoxicated get behind the wheel, Wachsmuth said.

Wachsmuth is a part of the J-Team, or the juvenile intervention team, which specializes in dealing with drug related crime and drug intervention in the Santa Clarita Valley.

In 2014, there were 290 DUI arrests made by Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies alone, said Sgt. Rich Cohen of the station’s Traffic Unit.

“Alcohol is the oldest drug around,” said Cary Quashen of Action Family Counseling in Valencia. “But it’s also the deadliest.”

The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $59 billion, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another issue relating to drug and alcohol abuse is when drug and alcohol users, especially younger users is that they, “lack productivity,” Wachsmuth said.

“Their grades are almost always D’s and F’s,” Wachsmuth said, “and they are predominantly marijuana users.”

“Many older drug users that do meth and heroin are convicted of thefts,” Wachsmuth said. “They reach a point where they can’t work anymore, and some end up shoplifting.”

When it comes to determining whether or not the deceased died from an accidental overdose versus a suicide, the coroner looks at a number of factors.

The body is tested to see if there were narcotics in the system at the time of death, and the past behavior exhibited by the deceased.

Santa Clarita does not have more of a drug problem than anywhere else, Wachsmuth explained, Santa Clarita just doesn’t try to hide it.

“We talk about the drug problems here,” Wachsmuth said, “other cities turn their backs on it,”

Connecting, and discussing drugs and alcohol with kids is extremely important, according to Quashen.

“We need to pay attention to our kids,” Quashen said, “and not be in denial about drugs.”

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About Action Family Counseling

Action Family Counseling has drug and alcohol residential treatment locations in Santa Clarita, Piru, and Bakersfield; Intensive Drug and Alcohol Outpatient in Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, Ventura, Pasadena, and Bakersfield, Action Family Counseling is here to help you.

Action Family Counseling’s primary goals are to maintain abstinence, stabilize co-occurring illnesses, and increase quality of life. We support and reinforce change in behavior patterns so that adolescents and adults, or clients and their families can fully indoctrinate the philosophies and principles needed to remain abstinent and stabilized for life.

Action Family Counseling accomplishes this by providing an effective treatment approach developed by the Department of Health and Human Services that includes a multi-disciplinarian personalized approach by a treatment team. Once a patient is identified, we provide an initial screening and assessment, which allows us to properly diagnose and place patients in the appropriate treatment setting.

Once a patient completes our intake process to our residential program he or she receives 24-hour crisis management, individual counseling, group therapy, family education and counseling, treatment planning, routine and random toxicology screening, pharmacotherapy and medication management, education about Alcohol and Other Drugs and mental health issues, self-help and support group orientation, case management services, and discharge service planning with a transitional service plan to our Intensive Outpatient treatment program to ensure a continuum of care.

KHTS AM 1220 - Santa Clarita Radio

Drug Overdoses In Santa Clarita On Pace To Increase

2 comments

  1. Please do a follow up article to this. Our town desperately needs this brought to attention. Just this week a 16 year old girl overdose. She played AYSO and was a Girl Scout. But NO ONE is talking about it. Not in one newspaper or online post.

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About Kimberly Beers

Kimberly Beers is a Santa Clarita native. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from California State University, Northridge in 2013. While attending the university, she focused her attention on news writing and worked as a primary news writer for the campus' award winning radio station and televised news program. She began writing news stories for KHTS in 2014 and hopes to have a lifetime career dedicated to writing and sharing the news