Santa Clarita Valley residents get a chance to do their part in battling the proliferation of heroin-like opioids, other painkillers and medication when National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day returns to the SCV.
Saturday is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, and Santa Clarita Valley residents are being invited by Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital officials to drop off unwanted prescription medication on that day.
National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is an annual program aimed at providing a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, according to DEA officials who issued a news release about the event Wednesday.
The program is promoted by the Office of Diversion Control of the US Department of Justice.
“If utilized, it is a very effective program,” Special Agent Timothy Massino of the Los Angeles office of the Drug Enforcement Administration told The Signal.
SCV residents are invited to “safely dispose of their unneeded and expired prescription drugs by taking them to one of any of the DEA designated sites around Southern California.
The special day is a chance, Massino said, to educate the general public about the potential for abuse of prescription and other medications.
In the Santa Clarita Valley, as many know, every day is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station on Magic Mountain Parkway.
SCV residents can drop off drugs any time at three recycled U.S. Post Office mailboxes lined up in front of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station on Magic Mountain Parkway, each labeled to receive a different drug-related item: Illegal drugs in the center, prescription medications on the right and an oversized box for biohazards and needles on the left.
Shirley Miller, spokeswoman for the SCV Sheriff’s Station, said she wants to remind people returning syringes to the local sheriff’s station to be mindful of putting the sharp objects in the designated bin.
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