WAUSAU, WI (WSAU-WAOW) — New products are hitting the market to alter the packaging of prescription opioids and attempt to reduce their misuse.
TimerCap is a pill bottle cover with a digital timer that allows someone to know when they last took their medication and if the bottle was opened by someone else since then.
“[Opioids] are highly sought after medications,” said Larry Twersky, CEO of TimerCap LLC. “When opioids are brought in the house, you need to act differently.”
Despite the benefits of products like TimerCap, Melissa Dotter, part of the Marathon County Drug-Free Communities Program, believes it won’t be a simple fix to defeat the growing epidemic in Central Wisconsin.
“There are a lot of novel ideas out there to try and address this issue and it’s going to take a multi-faceted approach,” she said. “I think in the long-term, we need to make sure we’re keeping them out of people’s hands.”
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 60 percent of fatal overdoses are a result of opioids.
