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Attorney General's Office Handing Out 300,000 Drug Deactivation Pouches

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- More than 4,500 people across Pennsylvania died last year due to heroin and opioid overdoses, according to the office of the attorney general.

That's why the attorney general's office is spear-heading an effort to hand out pouches that deactivate pills and allow them to be thrown out like regular trash.

"We are facing a crisis here in the commonwealth," said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro

Shapiro says, last year, on average, 13 people a day died in Pennsylvania from opioid overdoses. He says eight out of 10 heroin addicts started with legally prescribed pills.

"Seventy percent of them, they get that prescription drug from a friend, a relative, or what's laying around in the medicine cabinet," explained Shapiro.

Why, he says, it's so important to get pills out of the home, but he says flushing the pills is very dangerous.

"Whether the DEP or EPA or other environmental experts, he says that is absolutely dangerous for our water supply," said Shapiro.

The attorney general's office is handing out 300,000 drug deactivation pouches. The pouches, when mixed with water, can deactivate 45 pills.

"Not only deactivates the prescription, but it's environmentally safe, and is not going to create any toxicity or environmental problems if you throw it away in the regular trash," said Shapiro.

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