Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke held a special press conference Monday at the Fall Festival announcing a statewide expansion of Indiana’s safe drug disposal program including the Evansville Fire Department.

The expansion will provide Indiana fire departments with an additional donation of 75,000 safe drug disposal pouches to help fire departments across the state in the fight against the opioid epidemic. The EFD would receive 10,000 of those pouches.

The additional pouches were awarded due to the positive response and overwhelming demand to the 25,000 pouches donated in November 2018 to fire departments in Indianapolis, bringing RALI’s (Rx Abuse Leadership Initiative) total contribution to the Professional Firefighters Union of Indiana’s (PFFUI) safe drug disposal program to 100,000 pouches.

“I am proud of the efforts of RALI Indiana and the Professional Firefighters Union of Indiana to help curb the opioid epidemic across Indiana,” said Mayor Winnecke. “With these additional pouches, Evansville fire departments will be able to distribute the preventative pouches to our local communities, allowing more Hoosiers to easily and safely dispose of unused prescription medication from their own homes.”

This week the Evansville Fire Department will distribute the pouches to Hoosiers visiting the West Side Nut Club Festival.

“As first responders, we are on the front lines of this epidemic every day,” said Evansville Fire Chief Mike Connelly. “These pouches are a critical step in helping end this devastation by preventing someone prone to addiction from ever trying their first opioid. We’ve got to take everything we’ve got – no matter how large or small – to end this crisis.”

[Source: Noah Stubbs, Director of Communications / Mayor's Office, City of Evansville]

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