Health & Fitness
Here's How Many Pain Pills Your Pasadena Pharmacies Receive
A DEA database shows where more than 70 billion painkillers were sent. Here's how many pills your Pasadena pharmacies received.
PASADENA, MD — A new report shows billions of painkillers flowed through nearly 83,000 pharmacies across the country, including many in Pasadena. A previously unreleased database managed by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration logged where roughly 70 billion pills containing oxycodone and hydrocodone were shipped to, The Washington Post recently reported.
While the database doesn’t specify what happened after the pharmacies received the shipments, it does illuminate the sheer number of pills that flooded communities. The data includes numbers from 2006 to 2012, the Post reported. Chain and retail pharmacies were included.
Here’s what the database found for the individual pharmacies:
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MARYLAND CVS PHARMACY, 8501 FORT SMALLWOOD RD PASADENA MD 21122
2,292,800 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
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About enough for nine pills per year for each of the 33,910 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy
RITE AID, 8491 FORT SMALLWOOD ROAD PASADENA MD 21122
2,803,370 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
About enough for 12 pills per year for each of the 31,773 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy
RITE AID, 3400 MOUNTAIN ROAD PASADENA MD 21122
2,182,070 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
About enough for seven pills per year for each of the 42,563 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy
PTR, 2932 MOUNTAIN RD PASADENA MD 21122
1,306,800 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
About enough for four pills per year for each of the 44,014 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy.
MARYLAND CVS PHARMACY, 28 MAGOTHY BEACH RD PASADENA MD 21122
3,855,740 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
About enough for 12 pills per year for each of the 44,793 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy
SAFEWAY PHARMACY, 4211 MOUNTAIN ROAD PASADENA MD 21122
979,640 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
About enough for three pills per year for each of the 40,921 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy
GIANT PHARMACY #324, 4315 MOUNTAIN RD PASADENA MD 21122
1,558,720 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
About enough for five pills per year for each of the 40,921 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy
WEIS PHARMACY, 8115 RICHIE HIGHWAY PASADENA MD 21122
541,120 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
About enough for one pill per year for each of the 53,148 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy
BJ'S PHARMACY #59-PASADENA, 8139 GOVERNOR RITCHIE HIGHWAY PASADENA MD 21122
112,000 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
About enough for less than one pill per year for each of the 46,613 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy
SHOPPERS PHARMACY #2283/926, 8048 RITCHIE HIGHWAY PASADENA MD 21122
507,420 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
About enough for one pill per year for each of the 56,876 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy
K MART PHARMACY #3277, 8036 RITCHIE HIGHWAY PASADENA MD 21122
302,230 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
About enough for less than one pill per year for each of the 58,385 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy
KAISER PERMANTE SEVERNA PARK, 8028 RITCHIE HIGHWAY SUITE 314 PASADENA MD 21122
863,600 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012
About enough for two pills per year for each of the 59,377 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy
Five pharmacies in Kentucky, Illinois, Idaho and Kansas received the most painkillers per person each year, the Post found. With a total of nearly 6.8 million pills, Shearer Drug in Clinton County, Kentucky, saw the most pills per person per year at 96.
Areas deluged with pain pills saw far higher death rates related to opioids, the Post found. While the national rate was 4.6 deaths per 100,000 residents, counties that received the most pain pills per person saw rates that were more than three times higher.
Perhaps the most startling finding was that just 15 percent of pharmacies received nearly half of the pain pills.
According to the latest provisional data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were nearly 68,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States last year, a 5 percent decline from 2017. The agency predicted that number will rise to more than 680,000 once all data is reported to them.
In its previous report in July, the Post said 75 percent of the pills distributed in the seven-year period came from six companies with pharmacies: McKesson Corp., Walgreens, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, CVS and Walmart. Four other companies were identified by the paper as being among the top 10 distributors of opioids: Smith Drug Co., Rite Aid, Kroger and H.D. Smith.
Patch national staffers Dan Hampton and Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.
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