Drilling into the DEA’s
pain pill database
By The Washington Post Updated July 18, 2019
For the first time, a database maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration that tracks the path of every single pain pill sold in the United States — by manufacturers and distributors to pharmacies in every town and city — has been made public.
The Washington Post sifted through nearly 380 million transactions from 2006 through 2012 that are detailed in the DEA’s database and analyzed shipments of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills, which account for three-quarters of the total opioid pill shipments to pharmacies. The Post is making this data available at the county and state levels in order to help the public understand the impact of years of prescription pill shipments on their communities.
These records provide an unprecedented look at the surge of legal pain pills that fueled the prescription opioid epidemic, which resulted in nearly 100,000 deaths during the seven-year time frame ending in 2012.
A county-level analysis of the cumulative data shows where the most oxycodone and hydrocodone pills were distributed across the country over that time: more than 76 billion in all.
The Post gained access to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, known as ARCOS, as the result of a court order. The Post and HD Media, which publishes the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia, waged a year-long legal battle for access to the database, which the government and the drug industry had sought to keep secret.
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.
WALTON COUNTY search
• From 2006 to 2012 there were 22,569,265prescription pain pills supplied to Walton County, Fla.
•5,404,580 of the pills were distributed by Cardinal Health and 12,904,400 were manufactured by Actavis Pharma, Inc.
•PRESCRIPTION PLACE OF, DEFUNIAK SPRINGS pharmacy received the highest number of pills.
Pharmacies
Top five, from 2006 to 2012, in Walton County, Florida.
PRESCRIPTION PLACE OF, DEFUNIAK SPRINGS
4,473,960 pills
ROSS CENTANNI, DE FUNIAK SPRINGS
2,504,200
WALGREEN CO., DEFUNIAK SPRINGS
2,309,730
WAL-MART PHARMACY 10-1134, DEFUNIAK SPGS
1,981,660
FISHER PHARMACY INC, DEFUNIAK SPRINGS
1,980,690
National and state maps included
https://www.washingtonpost.com/grap...ea-pain-pill-database/?utm_term=.e4beac95491e
pain pill database
By The Washington Post Updated July 18, 2019
For the first time, a database maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration that tracks the path of every single pain pill sold in the United States — by manufacturers and distributors to pharmacies in every town and city — has been made public.
The Washington Post sifted through nearly 380 million transactions from 2006 through 2012 that are detailed in the DEA’s database and analyzed shipments of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills, which account for three-quarters of the total opioid pill shipments to pharmacies. The Post is making this data available at the county and state levels in order to help the public understand the impact of years of prescription pill shipments on their communities.
These records provide an unprecedented look at the surge of legal pain pills that fueled the prescription opioid epidemic, which resulted in nearly 100,000 deaths during the seven-year time frame ending in 2012.
A county-level analysis of the cumulative data shows where the most oxycodone and hydrocodone pills were distributed across the country over that time: more than 76 billion in all.
The Post gained access to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, known as ARCOS, as the result of a court order. The Post and HD Media, which publishes the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia, waged a year-long legal battle for access to the database, which the government and the drug industry had sought to keep secret.
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.
WALTON COUNTY search
• From 2006 to 2012 there were 22,569,265prescription pain pills supplied to Walton County, Fla.
•5,404,580 of the pills were distributed by Cardinal Health and 12,904,400 were manufactured by Actavis Pharma, Inc.
•PRESCRIPTION PLACE OF, DEFUNIAK SPRINGS pharmacy received the highest number of pills.
Pharmacies
Top five, from 2006 to 2012, in Walton County, Florida.
PRESCRIPTION PLACE OF, DEFUNIAK SPRINGS
4,473,960 pills
ROSS CENTANNI, DE FUNIAK SPRINGS
2,504,200
WALGREEN CO., DEFUNIAK SPRINGS
2,309,730
WAL-MART PHARMACY 10-1134, DEFUNIAK SPGS
1,981,660
FISHER PHARMACY INC, DEFUNIAK SPRINGS
1,980,690
National and state maps included
https://www.washingtonpost.com/grap...ea-pain-pill-database/?utm_term=.e4beac95491e
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