The Winchester Youth Service Bureau, as the Local Prevention Council, has obtained lock boxes for pills and medicine bottles, as well as Deterra Bags for the safe disposal of unused medication. They are doing what they can to help combat the opioid epidemic in CT. They will donate Deterra bags and lockboxes to the Town of Barkhamsted for the use of our residents.
As you can see in the picture of the lockbox, it isa modest size and is for home use for folks who feel that they need to protect their medications.
Deterra bags are a pouch that contains a water soluble inner pod. Once medications/drugs are placed in the pouch, warm water is added, which dissolves the inner pod releasing activated carbon. Deterra works on pills, patches and liquids, allowing them to be absorbed by the carbon, rendering them inert and non-retrievable. Deterra will deactivate any organic medication including opioids. Medium bags will deactivate 45 pills.
Water treatment facilities struggle to filter out all pharmaceutical drugs from the water. As of 2014, there were over 1.500 published reports of the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in sewage, surface waters, ground waters and elsewhere. Because of these findings, most federal, state and local authorities are now recommending (and many requiring) that pharmaceuticals not be disposed in the toilet or the sink.
These things are easy to use:
1. Open the pouch and pour in pills.
2. Pour warm water into the pouch.
3. Once the pod dissolves, the pouch is safe to throw away.
We will plan to have Deterra bags available at the Town Hall and Senior Center. If you want a lockbox or a supply of the bags, please contact Town Hall and we will reach out to the Youth Service Bureau to get one for you.
