Click here for the interactive map.
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 — is being made public.
The data, detailing nearly 380 million transactions, provides an unprecedented look at the surge of legal pain pills that fueled the prescription opioid epidemic, which resulted in nearly 100,000 deaths from 2006 to 2012.
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I have to wonder who is paying for these “prescriptions”:
When legally sold, a 10-mg tablet of OxyContin will cost $1.25 and an 80-mg tablet will cost $6. When illegally sold, a 10-mg tablet of OxyContin can cost between $5.00 and $10.00. An 80-mg tablet can cost between $65.00 and $80.50.
Based on this information, over 20% of the population of Cherokee County, NC is on opioid medication at all times. Now imagine when the cold civil war goes hot and these zombies want their candy.
David DeGerolamo
My county is one of those deep dark purple ones in eastern Kentucky. Its very bad here. Just the other day a woman was murdered in the park by a homeless man. He was allegedly the pill dealer to the homeless (which they ship in from surrounding areas). That homeless shelter is now closed permanently after locals decided enough was enough. Certain “promises” were made to the operators of the shelter that the shelter was no longer going to be open in the city.
Read “Dreamland” to better understand the economics and techniques. Pill mills are opened by unscrupulous physicians, drug dealers recruit legions of homeless, junkies, etc., etc., that are on Medicaid. At some “pain clinics” you see them lined up around the block. Doctor gets his Medicaid fee for “examining” the homeless guy and writes a prescription for a 30 day supply of opioids which the homeless guy gets filled, courtesy of Medicaid, for a co-payment of just a few bucks for a 30 day supply. Drug dealer takes the filled prescription in exchange for much cheaper heroin, then resells the 30 pills on the street for several dollars per pill.
Another revelation in that same book is how upstanding, perfectly innocent people’s lives are ruined due to becoming addicted to the painkillers that were legally prescribed.
So who pays for Medicaid? You and me.