Louisiana CVS pharmacies roll out time-delayed safes to fight crime, opioid abuse

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - More than 100 Louisiana pharmacies received new time-delayed safes amid a rise in reported robberies.

CVS Health and Attorney General Jeff Landry announced in a news conference Tuesday, Sep. 13., that 213 CVS pharmacy locations across Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas received the new technology to help prevent future crime.

“Crime is out of control, and it is going to take a multi-dimensional approach to help keep our neighbors safe,” said Landry.

The safes work by delaying the time it takes for a pharmacy employee to open it.

The time delay function cannot be overridden and is designed to serve as a deterrent to would-be pharmacy robbers whose goal is to enter and exit their robbery targets as quickly as possible.

All CVS Pharmacy locations with this technology display visible signage warning that time delay safes are in use to prevent on-demand access to controlled substance narcotics.

“The opioid epidemic has a lot of different factors and influences, and one of them has been an increase in pharmacy robberies,” said Thomas Moriarty, chief policy officer and general counsel of CVS Health.

Leaders say this will also help address the ongoing opioid epidemic.

Moriarty says the technology will stop controlled substances, including opioid medications such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, from falling into the wrong hands.

“60% of folks who have become addicted to opioids start by medicines being at a pharmacy counter or that have been diverged from pharmacies. So, as we reduce the level of diversion, we are going to make an impact,” Moriarty said.

CVS Health first implemented time delay safe technology in 2015. The company reported a 50% decline in robberies as a result of the time-delayed safes.

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