Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania to Distribute New Tool to Battle Opioid Crisis

The deactivation pouches, which can be used with schedule II narcotics, deactivate pills when mixed when warm water is added.

The attorney general of Pennsylvania has announced plans to supply 300,000 drug deactivation and disposal pouches to a dozen counties hardest hit by the opioid epidemic.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro said everyone receiving a schedule II narcotic such as Percocet, oxycodone and fentanyl at a participating pharmacy will be offered a free disposal pouch.

Shapiro said at Klingensmith's Neighborly Drug Store in Indiana County that 80 percent of heroin addicts start with abuse of prescription drugs, and most get them from friends, relatives or a medicine cabinet.

Adding warm water can deactivate as many as 45 unwanted pills in the pouches, which can then be thrown away.

Shapiro said 278 pharmacies will provide pouches in Blair, Butler, Cambria, Erie, Fayette, Indiana, Lackawanna, Lawrence, Lehigh, Luzerne, Mercer and Montour counties.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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