Why this exists

The single largest measured source of prescription opioid misuse is not theft or forgery. In the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 31.3% of people who misused a prescription pain reliever in the past year were given it free by a friend or relative, and a further 4.0% took it from one without asking. Together that is more than a third of misuse originating in somebody else’s medicine cabinet.

That is a storage problem, and it is solvable without regulating anybody. It is also why safe storage belongs at the front of a diversion strategy rather than at the back — see the diversion evidence.

Rescue medication is the other half. CDC’s 2022 guideline recommends offering naloxone where risk factors are present, and the case for it does not depend on any particular dose threshold.

How it works

• A lockable storage container supplied as part of enrollment, not recommended in a leaflet.
• Naloxone in the home, with the patient and the household shown how and when to use it.
• Household education — because the person most likely to witness an overdose is not a clinician.
• A disposal route for medication that is no longer needed, so that leftover supply does not sit in a cabinet for years.