2 ms·

I agree with the substance of your comment - opioid over-prescription is a huge problem. The stat though about Kermit, West Virginia example has to be due to f

I agree with the substance of your comment - opioid over-prescription is a huge problem. The stat though about Kermit, West Virginia example has to be due to fraud and illegal sales, though? Or include vastly more people within the area covered by its pharmacies and/or doctors, which ever the data source used? Otherwise each person in that town is receiving (on average) 31 pills/day. Maybe I wildly misunderstand hydrocodone prescriptions, but dozens of pills per day seems to be an excess.

devopsproject 10y ago
We have the numbers because the DEA tracks it. Why they didn't look into the numbers is beyond me. Manufacturer seems to have played a role too by sticking to dosing they knew was ineffective and then pushing for higher doses which lead to big bonuses: http://www.latimes.com/projects/oxycontin-part1/ http://www.latimes.com/projects/oxycontin-part1/
soundwave106 10y ago
The Kermit example absolutely was due to fraud and illegal sales from a "pill mill", from what I can Google. Several people were thrown in jail for that. (https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/pittsburgh/press-releases/2012/mingo-county-pharmacist-sentenced-to-prison-time-for-conspiracy-to-acquire-controlled-substances-by-fraud https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/pittsburgh/press-releases/...). I agree that opioid over-prescription is an issue, but I imagine some of these numbers are being inflated by similar "pill mills" run by unscrupulous doctors.