Sunday, July 31, 2011
Photo
Michael Boccia of Poland displays the medication lockbox he helped create with his childhood friend Michael Rebando.
RELATED: Mahoning Valley officials step up efforts to fight prescription-drug abuse
POLAND
Childhood friends Michael Boccia of Poland and Michael Rebando, a locksmith in Long Island, N.Y., believed they had created a great idea to save lives.
Instead, their medication lockbox that installs in home medicine cabinets looked like a bust.
“We thought we had come up with a simple solution to a deadly epidemic,” Boccia said.
But they were stunned at the reaction when they brought their MedSafe to market.
“People were in denial,” said Boccia, with Investments Advisor International in Poland. He and his wife, the former Kim Guerriero of Poland, have two children, 11 and 14.
He said he and Rebando, after meeting thousands of parents at Parent Teacher Association conventions and school meetings, were “stunned at the overwhelming consensus of parents and grandparents,” he said.
“It’s a great idea ... good thing I don’t need one ... my kids/grandkids are good kids,” was their reaction, Boccia said.
Boccia and Rebando were awakened themselves to the issue of securing prescription drugs in 2008 when Rebando’s 2-year-old niece climbed onto a counter to get at medicines kept on top of the refrigerator. The toddler chewed off the plastic safety cap, swallowed some of the medicine and was rushed to the hospital.
“Thank God she was OK. It wasn’t a painkiller,” Boccia said.
But it led Rebando to develop MedSafe and he brought the idea to Boccia because of his business background.
Boccia said the general public is beginning to be aware of the prescription-drug-abuse problem, but he said MedSafe is working closely with DARE, Drug Free America Foundation and other anti-drug organizations.
MedSafe recently sold 100 MedSafe devices to be distributed by the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery agency. These will be distributed to Warren Area Board of Realtors members to install in homes that are for sale to prevent visitors from raiding medicine cabinets.
Boccia said MedSafe is constructed of impact-resistant polymer and secured by a digital locking system.
It retails for $89.95 but is sold at a deep discount to anti-drug organizations and individual customers who go online to the MedSafe website, www.HelpSaveOurKids.com.
People who click on “buy now” and enter “Ohio” where it calls for a coupon code will be able to buy MedSafe for about half price, Boccia said.