Here's How Many Pain Pills Clark, Garwood Pharmacies Receive

CLARK/GARWOOD, NJ — A new report shows billions of painkillers flowed through nearly 83,000 pharmacies across the country, including many in Clark and Garwood. 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.

The database said 12 pharmacies within five miles of Clark and Garwood received almost 6 million pills from 2006 to 2012.

Here’s what the database found for the individual pharmacies:

Rite Aid Pharmacy
142 Central Ave., Clark
Pills received: 788,470

ShopRite Pharmacy
76 Central Ave., Clark
Pills received: 646,390

Target Pharmacy
45 Central Ave., Clark
Pills received: 170,900

CVS
60 Westfield Ave., Clark
Pills received: 520,260

Park Drugs
1732 St. George Ave. East, Linden
Pills received: 135,480

ShopRite
563 North Ave., Garwood
Pills received: 267,850

CVS
315 North Ave., Garwood
Pills received: 945,600

Drug Fair
260 North Ave., Westfield
Pills received: 443,280

Drug Fair
6 20 South Ave., Cranford
Pills received: 395,310

Walgreens
50 South Ave. W, Cranford
Pills received: 952,330

CVS
210 South Ave. W, Westfield
Pills received: 280,100

Walgreens
260 North Ave., Westfield
Pills received: 368,830

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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