CVS Pharmacy announced April 4 that it has installed time-delay safes in all of its 169 pharmacies in Tennessee. The goal is to help prevent robberies and combat the opioid epidemic by helping to keep controlled substance narcotic medications out of the hands of unauthorized people. Such medications that robbers seek include oxycodone and hydrocodone.
The safes electronically delay the time it takes to open the safe, and this function cannot be overridden. When CVS Pharmacy implemented such safes in Indianapolis in 2015, the company saw a 70 percent decline in robberies at those stores.
CVS Health has also installed 19 safe medication disposal units in CVS Pharmacy stores in Tennessee and donated five units to Tennessee law enforcement agencies. CVS Health has worked with 48 states including Tennessee and Washington, D.C., to increase access to the opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone (Narcan).
