A year-long legal battle between the Washington Post and the Drug Enforcement Administration resulted in the Washington Post gaining Court ordered access to the DEA’s Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, known as ARCOS.
The ARCOS contained all of the data on shipments of oxycodone, and hydrocodone pills to hospitals, pharmacies, and retail pharmacies in the U.S.
In an effort to spread the information across the country, the Washington Post, “is making this data accessible to journalists to download and use in their reporting to promote a deeper understanding of the regional and local effects of the opioid crisis.
Academics and readers may also download and explore this data for their own use.”
In its release of information, the Post explained, “We have cleaned up the data to include only information on shipments of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills.
“We did not include data on 10 other opioids because they were shipped in much lower quantities and were diverted at far lower rates over the seven years.”
Also, noted was that shipments of pills from distributors to themselves were not counted in the data, and the Post cautioned, it is important to remember that the number of pills sold in each county does not necessarily mean those pills went to people who live in that county. “The data only shows us what pharmacies the pills are shipped to and nothing else,” stated the report.
Cook County
What the data shows for Cook County was that from 2006 to 2012 there were 1,219,860 prescription pain pills, enough for 33 pills per person per year, supplied to Cook County.
McKesson Corporation distributed 1,134,740 pills and SpecGx LLC manufactured 807,300.
Arrowhead Pharmacy (now closed) received the highest number of pills, 939,040. Arrowhead Ventures Inc. received 195,700 and Grand Marais Pharmacy, 85,120.
Lake County
From 2006 to 2012 there were 1,582,395 prescription pain pills, enough for 20 pills per person per year, supplied to Lake County.
Of those pills, Cardinal Health distributed 1,046,290 and 1,046,400 were manufactured by SpecGx LLC.
Superior Health Pharmacy in Two Harbors received the highest numbers of pills, 725,339, with Superior Health Pharmacy in Silver Bay distributing 332,160. Essentia Health Silver Bay pharmacy received 118,600 pills and the Minnesota Veteran’s Home in Silver Bay got 46,605.
St. Louis County
From 2006 to 2012 there were 54,875,571 prescription pain pills supplied to St. Louis County, enough for 39 pills to be given to every person in St. Louis County per year.
Walgreen Co. distributed 16,449,200 pills and Actavis Pharma, Inc. manufactured 23,212,744 pills.
Carlton County
From 2006 to 2012 there were 9,961,840 prescription pain pills, enough for 40 pills for each Carlton County resident per year, supplied to Carlton County.
Cardinal Health distributed 5,178,080 pills and SpecGx LLC manufactured 7,440,320.
Walmart Pharmacy 10-1929, Cloquet, received the highest numbers of pills.
Distributors
The top oxycodone ad hydrocodone distributors from 2006 to 2012 were the McKesson Corp., with 14 billion produced, or 18.4 percent of the market; Walgreens, 13 billion; Cardinal Health, 11 billion; AmerisourceBergen 9 billion; CVS, 5.9 billion; Walmart, 5.3 billion; Smith Drug Co., 1.3 billion; Rite Aid, 1.3 billion; Kroger, 1.2 billion; and H.D. Smith made1.1 billion over that time period.
Manufacturers
SpecGx manufactured 29 billion pills, or 37.7 percent of all pills produced over that six-year period.
Actavis Pharma made 26 billion pills, or 34.5 percent of the market and Par Pharmaceutical produced 12 billion pills, capturing 15.7 percent of the market.
Deaths rise
All told more than 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pills were sold in the U.S. between 2006 and 2012. Opioid deaths rose from 18,000 per year to more than 23,000 per year, which resulted in nearly 100,000 deaths from 2006 to 2012.
The Washington Post noted that where the sales of opioid pain pills were the highest were the areas in the country that the deaths by these drugs were usually the highest. In 2017, opioids were the cause of about 47,000 deaths in the U.S.
In its investigative report, the Washington Post said that the companies behind the sales of these pain medications, “allowed the drugs to reach the streets of communities large and small, despite persistent red flags that those pills were being sold in apparent violation of federal law and diverted to the black market.”
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