Before we get back to how Mark MacDonald of MacDonald Funeral Home here in Marshfield, Massachusetts is saving lives. I want to revisit the questions that I pray you are asking yourself from last month’s column.

  What can I do? How can I help stop drugs from killing people in my community? We all know that Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” is not working. Our war on drugs is failing and I bet there isn’t one amongst us that does not know the pain drugs create for the user, the family, and our communities. I do not know if this pain is attacking your family, your friends, those you serve, or you. I only know that there is not one community in our country where drugs are not ruining lives, killing people, and tearing families apart.

  Do you know that you have the ability to help take drugs off the street? How? Ask H.T. Layton Funeral Home, Ashcraft Funeral Homes, Rone Funeral Service, Demarco-Luisi Funeral Home, Sray-Webster Funeral Home, Wainwright-Bernhardt Funeral Home, Davis & Wagner Funeral and Cremation Services, Daley Life Celebration Studios, Cheega Funeral Home, Mathis Funeral Home, McGuinness Funeral Home and Kelley Funeral Home. These 12 Funeral Homes in New Jersey are taking the lead in The Southwest Council, Inc.’s initiative to educate the public about prescription drug drop boxes and proper medicine disposal methods According to the March 1, 2015 post by Brittany M. Wehner on NJ.com, the March 2, 2015 article in the South Jersey Times, and Cory Gilden, M.Ed. Coordinator Salem-Cumberland Regional Action Toward Community Health (SCRATCH) a regional coalition dedicated to eliminating substance abuse in Salem and Cumberland Counties March 5, 2015 letters to the editor of the South Jersey Times.

  Thanks to Brittany M. Wehner I get to share how these 12 funeral homes are taking the lead in SCRATCH’s efforts to “keep prescription drugs out of the wrong hands by getting the right resources out to residents.” What are they doing? These funeral homes are educating the families they serve on how they can safely dispose of their loved ones’ prescription drugs by providing information. Thanks to these 12 funeral homes the families they serve in New Jersey’s Salem, Cumberland and Gloucester counties now receive the information and resources they need to properly dispose of medicine as well as drop box locations. Please join me in applauding these 12 funeral homes for helping the families they serve take drugs off the street.

  These funeral homes are on the new front lines. They are not warning against drugs. They are taking the relationships they have with the families they serve to a new level. These 12 funeral homes are empowering the families they serve by giving them the tools they need to help them keep their loved one’s drugs off the streets.

  The question is, why am I only able to find out about their efforts through multiple Google searches that finally lead me to NJ.com, an article in the South Jersey Times, and a letter to the editor? This is why one of the questions that I plan to ask Mark MacDonald is: what are you doing to help almost every news station and paper in Massachusetts tell our communities about your efforts to save the lives drugs try to take?

  The questions that I pray we will continue to ask ourselves are: What can I do? How can I help my community find our answer to how do we stop drugs from killing people we love? Please tell me your thoughts. Together we may just find the answers. Please give me a ring at 781-331-5308 or if you prefer email me at Kristan@mooneytunco.com, join the conversation on the Let’s Chat blog.