Over 8.4 Million Prescription Pills Distributed Locally, According to the DEA

8-12-19 DEA Tracks Painpill

In an article by the Virginian Review, I read that the statistics on the total number of prescription pain pills distributed to the Allegheny Highlands and Bath were made public recently through a database created by the DEA. In a seven year period, over 8.4 million prescription pills were distributed locally. The version of the database published by The Post allows readers to learn how much hydrocodone and oxycodone went to individual states and counties, and which companies and distributors were responsible.

Three-quarters of the 380 million total transactions from 2006 to 2012 were shipments of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills. In Virginia, for that seven-year period, almost 1.6 billion pills were supplied to the state. In the Alleghany Highlands, the most pills were distributed in Covington, where over 4.5 million were given to patients, which is an average of 107 pills per person per year. 

Over 1.9 million were distributed by the Covington Wal-Mart pharmacy and over 3.1 million were manufactured by SpecGx LLC.

The CVS in Covington distributed over 1.2 million pills during that time frame.

In Alleghany County, over 3.3 million pills were distributed, which averages about 29 pills per person per year. Over 900,000 of those pills were distributed by CVS in Clifton Forge and 1.6 million were manufactured by SpecGx LLC.

The Kroger pharmacy in Clifton Forge distributed  705,000 pills.

In Bath County, 632,640 prescription pain pills, enough for 19 pills per person per year, were supplied.

Of that amount, 589,200 were distributed by AmerisourceBergen Drug and 409,200 were manufactured by Actavis Pharma, Inc.

Hot Springs Pharmacy received the most pills during that time at 632,600.

Earlier this year, Alleghany County and Covington are among almost 50 localities in Virginia who have joined a class-action suit against certain manufacturers- one of them being Insys Therapeutics Inc. whose founder and top executives have been convicted of bribing doctors to prescribe highly addictive painkillers, and has become the first opioid manufacturer to declare bankruptcy after being hit with huge fines.

A statement by the lead counsel in the combined legal cases of more than 1,800 (18 HUNDRED) states, cities and other communities seeking billions of dollars in compensation from 22 opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies, said they would continue to pursue the legal action against Insys to recover the costs of the epidemic on public finances, from increased crime to addiction treatment and care for orphaned children.

I’d like to thank the Virginian Review and The Guardian for some of the information I used in this story

For AMR News, I’m Abby Dufour 

 

Story By

Abby Dufour

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