National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day 2016 is Saturday, April 30, and Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital will serve as the Santa Clarita Valley’s collection point for unwanted prescription medications from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in partnership with Action Family Counseling.

SCV residents can drop off unwanted medications outside the main hospital building at 23845 McBean Parkway in Valencia — no questions asked.

National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is a Drug Enforcement Agency initiative, and in the Santa Clarita Valley, event co-sponsors include the ACTION Family Foundation, Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, KHTS-AM 1220, the Santa Clarita Gazette and local law enforcement authorities.

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Cary Quashen, founder and CEO, Action Family Counseling in Santa Clarita.

“The Drug Take-Back is one of the most important things we can do for our children,” said Cary Quashen, founder and CEO of the Action Family Counseling drug and alcohol rehab center in Santa Clarita.

“When I’m working with children and asking the kids where they’re getting their drugs, they say from their mom’s medicine cabinet, their father’s desk drawer,” Quashen said. “We are our kids’ dealers and we don’t even know it. We go to the doctor, we get prescriptions for pain after surgery, we take a couple and forget about them. So this is a safe way to get rid of all the unused dangerous narcotics that’s also environmentally friendly.”

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In September 2015, more than 3,800 federal, state and local counterparts took in more than 702,365 pounds of unused, expired or unwanted drugs at more than 5,000 collection sites across the United States as part of National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.

Since the DEA launched the initiative in 2010, Take-Back Day events have collected 5,525,021 pounds of drugs.

“The numbers are shocking — approximately 46,000 Americans die each year from drug-related deaths,” said Chuck Rosenberg, acting DEA administrator. “More than half of those are from heroin and prescription opioids. With four out of five new heroin users starting with prescription medications, I know our take-back program makes a real difference.”

National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day addresses a crucial public safety and public health issue. According to the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 6.5 million Americans abused controlled prescription drugs.

That same study showed that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet.

In addition, Americans are learning that disposing of unused medicines by flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash both pose potential safety and health hazards.

For more information about prescription drug disposal from the DEA’s Office of Diversion Control website, click here.

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.

Action Family Counseling

22722 Soledad Canyon Road

Santa Clarita, CA 91350

Office: 661-297-8691

24-Hour Helpline: 800-367-8336