Leading the Fight Against Opioid Addiction

Kentucky State Senator Alice Forgy Kerr is leading the way in fighting against opioid addiction and abuse.

Frankfort, KY – January 2, 2018. Kentucky State Senator Alice Forgy Kerr is sponsoring a bill this session with the support of Senator Ralph Alvarado to curb opioid addiction and deaths by providing safe and environmentally conscious disposal solutions for all scheduled II, III, and IV Class medications. With a comprehensive focus, Senator Kerr has been working with Ben Donaldson of DisposeRx to find a site-of-use home solution that is easy, convenient and inexpensive. “Mitigating diversion, limiting the potential environmental impact of discarded drugs and safely removing drugs from home medicine cabinets to prevent poisonings, accidental overdoses and addictions has been our goal,” said Senator Kerr and Ben Donaldson, Vice President of Governmental Affairs at DisposeRx.

“Mitigating diversion, limiting the potential environmental impact of discarded drugs and safely removing drugs from home medicine cabinets to prevent poisonings, accidental overdoses and addictions has been our goal.”

Alice Forgy Kerr
Kentucky State Senator

We believe that the singular approach of attacking the opioid epidemic after addiction has set in and has a lower likelihood of success and a much higher cost to individuals, communities and state/federal governments. Combatting our state’s opioid epidemic – with site-of-use solutions that can be distributed at the time a patient picks up their medication – allows our pharmacists practicing in our communities the opportunity to educate patients on proper and safe drug disposal methods. Senator Kerr is proud to be leading the way when discussing safe and effective consumer alternatives to fighting Kentucky’s opioid epidemic. “This goal can be accomplished by empowering patients with environmentally-friendly, non-toxic solutions that safely sequesters unwanted or expired medications,” Senator Kerr said.

“Our goal is to stop the opioid epidemic by cleaning out the medicine cabinet and preventing the next addiction by dispensing DisposeRx with each opioid prescription to enable the permanent sequestration of unused drugs in a biodegradable matrix. We are excited to join with Senators Kerr and Alvarodo in bringing solutions to this drug epidemic to our fellow Kentuckians,” Donaldson said. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) tells us that nearly half a million Americans died from drug overdoses from 2000- 2014, and drug overdoses caused over 64,000 deaths in 2016. Prescription opioid abusers are 40 times more likely to develop a heroin dependency to manage their addictions. Now heroin is laced with fentanyl, an opioid that is 50 times more potent than morphine and a major contributor to overdose deaths. The statistics on the opioid epidemic keep growing, as more people are killed today in this epidemic than on our highway system each year (47,000), and US economic costs in 2015 exceeded $504 billion, nearly 3% of the gross domestic product (GDP). The number of overdoses and deaths have surpassed the AIDS epidemic numbers of the early 1990’s. The CDC’s number one preventive measure to stopping this epidemic is to “limit initiation into opioid misuse and addiction.” “By focusing upstream before addiction to prescription opioids begins and working with DisposeRx, we believe that we can get in front of the addiction problem at the source by safely removing and cleaning out medicine cabinets to prevent abuse and environmental pollution” said Senator Kerr. This legislation puts Kentucky at the forefront of various state efforts to prevent drug overdoses, and Senator Kerr is proving her leadership by filing this bill and championing this solution to beating the opioid epidemic.

About Senator Alice Forgy Kerr:
Alice Forgy Kerr (R-Lexington) has served the 12th District of the Kentucky State Senate since 1999, representing a portion of Fayette County. Senator Kerr chairs the Senate Economic Development, Tourism and Labor Committee and is the co-chair of the Workers’ Compensation Task Force. In addition to her 18-year service in the state senate, she was a faculty member and formerly served as the Director of Academic Advising at Midway College. She is the mother of two sons, Carson and Jamison, and grandchildren, Case, Dylan, and Davis. She has dedicated her life to serving her community and state through active volunteerism, education, ministry, and public service.

About DisposeRx:
DisposeRx Inc., (https://disposerx.com) is a blend of solidifying materials that provide a solution for the safe and permanent disposal of unwanted, unused or expired medications. When water and DisposeRx are added to drugs in the prescription vial and shaken, the drugs are dissolved and then both chemically and physically sequestered in a biodegradable, viscous gel from which they cannot be extracted (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8hZvkRjKgk). DisposeRx is spearheading programs to educate communities with practical, convenient, inexpensive and safe medication disposing solutions, thus preventing drug addictions, overdoses, deaths and environmental pollution. DisposeRx believes in a safe home, with a goal to stop the nation’s opioid epidemic that often begins at the home medicine cabinet. DisposeRx has developed a first-in-class drug disposal product and enables its distribution through local and regional outreach programs with pharmacies, hospitals, hospices and correctional facilities. Further, drugs treated with DisposeRx, when discarded in the trash, rapidly biodegrade in landfills and do not pollute water supplies.

Contact Information:
Senator Alice Forgy Kerr
702 Capitol Ave
Annex Room 203
502-564-8100 Ext. 779
Frankfort KY 40601
Alice.Kerr@lrc.ky.gov

DisposeRx, Inc.
Ben Donaldson
844-456-1600
Disposerx.com
bdonaldson@disposerx.com

New Address

DisposeRx has moved! Our corporate office
address is now located at:

 

DisposeRx, Inc.
146 NW Broad Street
Southern Pines, NC 28387

 

Please update your address book. Thank you and remember to check your medicine cabinet and dispose of any unneeded or expired medications.

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