Protect yourself and your loved ones from dangerous prescription painkiller misuse and poisoning by securing, monitoring and disposing of your medications. Every day, 44 people in the U.S. die from overdose of prescription painkillers, and many more become addicted.
Learn more by listening to Kaytlyn’s story below.

• More than 1,600 teens begin abusing prescription drugs each day.

• Almost 1 in every 4 teens in America say they have misused or abused a prescription drug.

• One in five teens (20%) who have abused prescription drugs did so before the age of 14.

• 9% of teens in a recent study reported using prescription pain relievers not prescribed for them in the past year, and 5% (1 in 20) reported doing so in the past month.

The SafeRx Community Education and Engagement Initiative is a group of healthcare professionals, parents, government and youth serving agencies working  together to develop and publicize patient and community education  around prescription medication safety and reduce unnecessary prescription drug access.  

• Increase awareness of the issue to multiple audiences, i.e. parents, healthcare professionals, community members, students (middle school and older)

• Decrease access to prescription drugs through proper storage, monitoring and disposal

• Promote convenient disposal locations and Take Back Days
  FIND A DROP-OFF SITE

• Increase healthcare professionals use of the CURES statewide prescription tracking system to decrease multiple/ over-prescription

• Support the roll out of the Extended Producer Responsibility Ordinance in all Santa Cruz County jurisdictions.
  Article on Extended Producer Responsibility Ordinance: http://bit.ly/2GUUB7l
  

PRESCRIPTION DRUG FACTS