Tracking pain pills

The Washington Post recently won access to a Drug Enforcement Administration database that tracks the path of prescription pain pills sold in the U.S., and it published a tool showing how much hydrocodone and oxycodone went to individual states and counties from 2006 to 2012. The Post says the “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. The database shows the North State as a hot spot in California for the rate of pills per person. Butte County received 126,438,275 pain pills, enough for each resident to have 82 pills per year. Shasta County received 117,341,864 pills, enough for 94 pills per person. Actavis Pharma, which has since been acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals, was the top manufacturer in both counties. Sacramento County received many more pills total—443,063,171—but had a rate of just 45 pills per person per year.