Bill Macfadyen

<p>What do you do if you want to properly dispose of expired or unused prescription medications? It’s not the easiest thing to do here.</p>

<p>It all started with toxicology reports from the Santa Barbara County Coroner's Office.</p>

<p>Thanks to this year's California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, professional hyperlocal news outlets have added new insights and perspectives to their reporting on health issues.</p>

<p>Because of San Francisco’s pharmaceutical dropoff pilot program, residents can now dispose of their medicines — for free — at 16 pharmacies and five police stations in the city.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Addressing an issue as complex as prescription drug abuse among elderly adults starts with educating the public.</p>

<p>Antioch University Santa Barbara&nbsp;has long been committed to understanding addiction and developing methods to effectively treat it. Three programs prove the point.</p>

<p>With an increase in anxiety and stress, counselor Lacey Johnson said she has seen a rise in the use and mixture of powerful and dangerous substances among some students at UCSB.</p>

<p>In Santa Barbara County, there were 111 drug- and alcohol-related deaths in 2009, the most recent year of complete data, and county Coroner’s Office records show the presence of prescription medications<span style="color: green; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 3px double;"></span> in many o

<p>One of Dr. Joe Blum’s patients was an Army colonel in the Vietnam War who suffered multiple wounds and endured dozens of surgeries. From then on, Blum decided he would do whatever is reasonable in the best interest of his patients.</p>