How are Illinois’ 392 CVS Pharmacies combating opioid abuse, retail crime?

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and law enforcement officials helped CVS Pharmacy executives unveil new time-delay safes that have been installed in all of the chain’s 392 Illinois stores.

The new safes are intended to help stop the opioid epidemic and organized retail crime, in the state.

The time-delay safe technology is “up and running,” said Tom Moriarty, CVS Health’s chief policy officer. That includes CVS Health’s pharmacies located inside Target stores, he added.

“We believe this step is a meaningful contribution to our efforts to prevent prescription drug misuse and diversion here in Illinois, and make every community where we sit a safer place,” Moriarty said.

The CVS safes, which will be used for narcotics, functions on time delays that change each day, officials said. To start the timer, a code must be entered and the safe cannot be opened until the timer expires.

When the safe opens, pharmacists remove only the narcotics needed for that day. That means that if there was a robbery, the rest of the pharmacy’s medications would remain locked in the safe, which cannot be opened on demand, Moriarty said.

The new safes are a solution in support of the attorney general’s recently established Organized Retail Crime Task Force, officials said.

“Opioid addiction has destroyed lives throughout Illinois, and tools that prevent addictive medications from being stolen from pharmacies support our work to combat the opioid epidemic and organized retail crime,” said Raoul.