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w “This is for those medications that are sitting in your home that are no longer needed,” Davis said. “So maybe a patient had a broken leg and needed opioids for the pain, but has some pills left over — those drugs can be easily diverted for abuse by anyone who has access, and we want to help prevent that.” In addition to the medication disposal effort, the CVS Health Foundation is helping to fund opioid-related efforts at the local level, by awarding up to $2 million in grants to community health centers dedicated to supporting opioid addiction recovery. In Baltimore, a $85,000 grant is going to Total Health Care. The funding will be used to develop and implement care models to increase participation in Total Health Care’s substance abuse treatment program. Davis said taking part in combating the opioid crisis is in line with CVS’s mission as a health care company. “Our pharmacists are uniquely positioned as part of the local health care systems to play an important role in educating and also intervening on this issue,” Davis said. “Our mission is about helping people on their path to better health, and one of the ways we can do that is through heightened safety around prominent public health issues.” Maryland is among states across the U.S. that have been ravaged by the deadly ongoing opioid epidemic. Tom Davis, vice president of professional services for CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), said CVS is seeking to support communities that have been affected by the crisis with its medication disposal kiosks. The units will allow patients to drop off unused or excess pills from old prescriptions, so they can be handed over to police and safely disposed of.

CVS looks to prevent

prescription opioid misuse with disposal kiosks in Md.