MAINE, Maine — In an effort to fight Maine's drug epidemic, Kennebunk Savings is offering free prescription drug disposal bags for anyone who needs to get rid of old medications.
The Deterra pouch bags can be found inside each Kennebunk Savings branch, and you don't have to be a bank client to stop by and get one.
According to a study by the National Library of Medicine, up to 92% of post-surgical prescriptions go unused.
The drug deactivation bags by Deterra are simple to use. You open the bag, place the unused drugs in, pour some water, close the bag, shake it, and throw it into the trash can. Click here to learn more.
Brad Paige is the president and CEO of Kennebunk Savings. He saif this is a real way for the bank to help make a difference in the community.
"One of the leading causes of addiction, or one of the leading contributing factors around addiction, is the ability to access unused drugs from medicine cabinets and things like that," Paige explained. "So what this allows is for the safe disposal of all those extra medications. So if you get prescribed a drug in a procedure and you have half a bottle or a whole bottle of pills left over, instead of letting it just sit in the medicine cabinet, you can stop by pick up one of these bags."
People can also swing by the Kennebunk Police Department at 4 Summer Street to get one of the bags. The chief said the department is partnering with Kennebunk Savings in this effort.
“The opioid crisis is having such a devastating effect on our communities,” Paige said. “We hope that getting these medications out of medicine cabinets when they are no longer needed will prevent them from getting into the wrong hands and being misused.”
The Deterra bags are available to bank customers and the public free of charge at any of the bank’s 17 branches in York County, Maine, and Seacoast New Hampshire.
The bank has committed $225,000 over the past two years in support of substance use disorder prevention and recovery efforts.
Paige said the bank will have this program for the foreseeable future, as the goal is to make a real difference in the community and for people to have the option
"It's kind of a win-win all the way around. It's not bad for the environment, it deactivates everything, you don't have to wait for the annual drug deactivation days that are really successful," Paige explained. "But this is something you can have on hand to use it whenever you need to. You don't have to be a customer of the bank to pick up any of the bags. They are available at all 17 of our branches; 12 in southern Maine and 5 in New Hampshire."
People can get one of the drug deactivation bags at Kennebunk Savings during normal business hours. The bank's branches are closed on Sundays.