2 Billion Pain Pills Flooded Michigan In 7 Years

MICHIGAN (the Patch) — The news from the federal government that drug overdose deaths in the United States declined in 2018 for the first time in three decades comes just as a new report published by The Washington Post shows the staggering number of opioid pills that flooded the country and contributed to the opioid crisis.

According to the data published by The Post, 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pills were distributed across the country between 2006-2012. The figures come from a DEA database that The Post and The Charleston Gazette-Mail sued to obtain. A judge in Cleveland overseeing a combined lawsuit from cities across the country against drug companies granted the newspapers partial access to the database following an appeal.

The Post also published the figures showing how many pain pills reached individual states and counties.

In Michigan, 2,852,579,277 prescription pain pills were distributed between 2006-2012.

According to the latest provisional data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 67,744 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2018, a 5 percent decline from the previous year. The agency predicts that number will rise to more than 680,000 once all data is reported to them.

Click here to continue.