Medical lock boxes available to Realtors for use at open house

Staff report

WARREN

Trumbull County, which ranks eighth out of Ohio’s 88 counties for unintentional prescription drug overdoses, is trying to help ease the problem through distribution of medical lock boxes.

Lauren Thorp, program director at the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board, says one way people are illegally obtaining prescription medications is through theft during a real-estate open house.

“Drug thefts during open houses are not new, but the incidents appear to be increasing,” Thorp said.

“People are becoming desperate,” Thorp said, adding, “Drugs may be resold on the street for more cash than pieces of jewelry.”

The Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention and the Area Agency on Aging District 11 are offering free medical lock boxes from MedSafe to Trumbull County Realtors to distribute to clients before open houses to lock up their medications.

“We have 100 boxes available at this time, so the boxes are being distributed on a first-come, first-served basis,” said Thorp. “If the program is a success and we secure additional funding, we may expand the program in the future.”

To receive a lock box, Realtors should contact Thorp at 330-675-2765, ext. 119.

The most-popular stolen in-home medications tend to be controlled substances, such as anti-anxiety medications, attention-deficit-disorder prescriptions such as Ritalin, pain pills, and psychiatric drugs.

However, prescription and over-the-counter drugs have been targeted by open-house crashers, Thorp said. Antihistamines, for example, may be stolen and used to produce PCP and similar hallucinogenic street drugs. Cough medicine and diet pills are commonly stolen and abused substances.