Here's How Many Pain Pills Flemington Pharmacies Receive

FLEMINGTON, NJ — A new report shows billions of painkillers flowed through nearly 83,000 pharmacies across the country, including many in Flemington. 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 Flemington received 4.3 million pills from 2006 to 2012.

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

CVS
190 Highway 31, Flemington
Pills received: 855,510

CVS
798 Highway 202
Pills received: 380,300

Wal-Mart
150 Highway 31, Flemington
Pills received: 171,800

Rite Aid
78 Church St., Flemington
Pills received: 792,580

Walgreens
29 Route 31, Flemington
Pills received: 726,760

Reading Ridge Pharmacy, Flemington
8 Reading Road
Pills received: 384,380

Hunterdon Regional Pharmacy
2100 Westcott Drive
Pills received: 563,560

Stop & Shop
334 State Route 31
Pills received: 233,920

Wald Drugs Two
Route 202
Pills received: 136,930

Cure & Care Drugs
45 Reaville Ave.
Pills received: 142,790

Wald Drugs of Flemington
14 Commerce St.
Pills received: 176,200

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.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com