NEW ORLEANS — A new crime-fighting tool is now in pharmacies across the area.
State and local law enforcement say time delay safes are now in use in nearly 200 CVS pharmacies across Louisiana and Mississippi.
The safes can not be overridden by pharmacists or anyone who works in the stores.
It's an effort to stop robberies of pain killers, like oxycodone and hydrocodone, while protecting employees.
“Gangs target pharmacies to steal narcotics, and other prescription drugs, to sell them on the street, and online to fund other illicit activities,” said Thomas Moriarty, Chief Policy Officer and General Counsel for CVS Health.
“One of the first things we recognized was that America was engaged in an opioid epidemic that was killing 10s of thousands of young people each and every year. Sixty percent of opioid addicts start their addiction with someone else's prescription,” explained Jeff Landry, Attorney General of Louisiana.
Time delay safes cut pharmacy robberies down in Indiana, by 70 percent.