Article: ACTOR'S DEATH SHOWS DANGER OF MIXING PRESCRIPTION PILLS IGNORANCE: VICTIMS ARE OFTEN UNAWARE THAT 'SAFE' DRUGS CAN KILL.(News)(ST)

Byline: Susan Abram

Staff Writer

The 16-year-old wasn't famous.

But he died this week the same way actor Heath Ledger recently did -- with a lethal mix of chemicals from prescription pills running through his veins and causing his young heart to stop while he slept.

"This is the third death like this I've had this year," said Cary Quashen, an addiction specialist who founded Action, a nonprofit support-group and crisis-counseling program for parents and teens across Los Angeles County.

"We deal with this every day, with kids flirting with their lives every day," Quashen said. "You don't hear about this until it's someone famous. People taking these drugs ...

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