KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Drug Take Back Day, held in Santa Clarita by Action Family Counseling and around the country last month, took in a record number of prescription drugs, keeping them off the street and keeping the community safer.
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“It’s really awesome because we have to get these drugs off the streets in an appropriate way,” said Cary Quashen, founder and CEO of Action Family Counseling.
The count for the National Take Back Day came in at over 893,000 lbs– over 150,000 lbs. more than last September, according to an email from DEA Special Agent Shane Martineau.
In Santa Clarita alone, Quashen said, the event took in over 200 pounds of prescription drugs.
“We might have saved some lives and we might never know about it,” he said. “It’s just as good as if we did know.”
Related: Action Family Counseling Joins In National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day
The event took place at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital on April 30, where residents had the opportunity to drop off their unused or expired drugs to get them out of their houses and avoid the prescriptions falling into the hands of children.
“Whenever I have a (young person) who’s been using prescription drugs, I always ask them where they’re getting them,” said Quashen, “and they almost always say the medicine cabinet (at home).”
He added that this event and those like it are a public service to help the community. People who take medicine for ongoing diseases, those who don’t finish a prescription or residents with old medicine left over from a previous use were able to dispose of them safely.
“They had boxes and bags of pills and they didn’t know what to do,” Quashen said. “It’s a great deal.”
Action Family Counseling is a Santa Clarita drug and alcohol rehab center. Action has drug and alcohol residential treatment locations in Santa Clarita, Piru and Bakersfield, as well as intensive drug and alcohol outpatient programs in Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, Ventura, Pasadena and Bakersfield. Action Family Counseling supports and reinforces changes 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.
22722 Soledad Canyon Road
Santa Clarita, CA 91350
Office: 661-297-8691
24-Hour Helpline: 800-367-8336
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