Ten thousand medication disposal kits are headed to the Pitt County Coalition on Substance Abuse for distribution. As Jared Brumbaugh reports, the kits are an effort to get rid of unused opioids.
The disposal kits help prevent people from becoming addicted to opioids by providing a simple and easily accessible way to dispose of unused medications. Communications Director with Trillium Health Jennifer Mackethan says the Deterra Drug Deactivation System works by combining water and activated carbon to neutralize any organic medications containing opioids.
“It’s really just as easy as adding some water, putting in the pills, you close the packet and then shake it up. And within a few minutes, it has done its job and the medication and the chemicals are deactivated so they can no longer be used.”
Trillium will receive two to three shipments of the 45-pill capacity kits from Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. Executive Director of the Pitt County Coalition on Substance Abuse Elizabeth Montgomery-Lee says they’re hoping to partner with local pharmacies and PORT Human Services to distribute them.
“I am optimistic that these kits will help people dispose of them before they get in the wrong hands, or get in the hands of their children or grandchildren.”
Montgomery-Lee says more than 220 medication or drug overdoses were reported in Pitt County emergency rooms in the first six months of this year.