Here's How Many Pain Pills Ellicott City Pharmacies Receive

ELLICOTT CITY, MD — A new report shows billions of painkillers flowed through nearly 83,000 pharmacies across the country, including many in Ellicott City. 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 reported Monday.

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:

WATERMONT PHARMACY INC., 4900 A WATERLOO ROAD ELLICOTT CITY MD 21043

531,190 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012

About enough for one pill per year for each of the 40,313 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy

SAFEWAY PHARMACY #1459, 4370 MONTGOMERY ROAD ELLICOTT CITY MD 21043

632,660 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012

About enough for one pill per year for each of the 47,514 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy.

TARGET STORES A DIV.OF TARGET CORP., 4390 MONTGOMERY RD ELLICOTT CITY MD 21043

560,720 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012

About enough for one pill per year for each of the 48,050 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy

GIANT PHARMACY #143, 4715 DORSEY HALL DR ELLICOTT CITY MD 21043

727,310 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012

About enough for one pill per year for each of the 52,125 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy

RITE AID, 8601 BALTIMORE NATIONAL PIKE ELLICOTT CITY MD 21043

661,160 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012

About enough for two pills per year for each of the 36,256 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy

WAL-MART PHARMACY 10-2412, 3200 NORTH RIDGE ROAD ELLICOTT MD 21043

591,590 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012

About enough for two pills per year for each of the 40,604 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy

RITE AID, 9150 BALTIMORE NATIONAL PIKE ELLICOTT CITY MD 21042

595,360 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012

About enough for two pills per year for each of the 41,868 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy

GIANT OF MARYLAND, 9200 BALTIMORE NATIONAL PIKE SUITE A ELLICOTT CITY MD 21043

888,620 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012

About enough for two pills per year for each of the 43,959 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy

SAFEWAY PHARMACY, 10000 BALTIMORE NATIONAL PIKE ELLICOTT CITY MD 21043

694,430 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012

About enough for two pills per year for each of the 37,257 people who live within five miles of this pharmacy

MARYLAND CVS PHARMACY, 3300A CENTENNIAL LANE ELLICOTT CITY MD 21042

1,782,700 pills were shipped to this pharmacy between 2006 and 2012

About enough for seven pills per year for each of the 34,621 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