Opioid Crisis: 1.5B Pain Pills Flooded New Jersey In 7 Years

A government database published by The Washington Post shows that 76 billion pills were distributed nationwide between 2006-2012. More than 1.5 billion of those were distributed in New Jersey, and the publication also provided a county-by-county breakdown.

The news from the federal government that drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2018 for the first time in three decades – but increased in New Jersey – comes just as a new report published by The Washington Post shows the staggering number of opioid pills that flooded the country and contributed to the opioid crisis.

According to the data published by The Post, 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pills were distributed across the country between 2006-2012. The figures come from a DEA database that The Post and The Charleston Gazette-Mail sued to obtain. A judge in Cleveland overseeing a combined lawsuit from cities across the country against drug companies granted the newspapers partial access to the database following an appeal.

The Post also published the figures showing how many pain pills reached individual states and counties.

In New Jersey, 1,518,780,056 prescription pain pills were distributed between 2006-2012, the report said.

According to the latest provisional data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 67,744 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2018, a 5 percent decline from the previous year. The agency predicts that number will rise to more than 680,000 once all data is reported to them.

In New Jersey, there were 4,763 drug overdose deaths in 2018, an increase of 15 percent since 2017, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In its report, The Post said many of the pills distributed in the seven-year period in New Jersey came from five companies with pharmacies: Partners Pharmacy in Springfield, CVS, Ominicare in Edison, Covered Bridge Pharmacy of Cherry Hill and Keansburg Drugs.

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.

Here's how many pills were distributed in New Jersey, county-by-county, from 2006-2012:

• Atlantic County: 73,621,097 prescription pain pills, enough for 38 pills per person per year
• Bergen County: 118,471,276 prescription pain pills, enough for 18 pills per person per year
• Burlington County: 98,843,372 prescription pain pills, enough for 31 pills per person per year
• Camden County: 152,026,816 prescription pain pills, enough for 42 pills per person per year
• Cape May County: 27,252,386 prescription pain pills, enough for 39 pills per person per year
• Cumberland County: 41,779,811 prescription pain pills, enough for 38 pills per person per year
• Essex County: 93,500,795 prescription pain pills, enough for 17 pills per person per year
• Gloucester County: 84,627,929 prescription pain pills, enough for 42 pills per person per year
• Hudson County: 65,981,691 prescription pain pills, enough for 15 pills per person per year
• Hunterdon County: 15,543,410 prescription pain pills, enough for 17 pills per person per year
• Mercer County: 54,919,709 prescription pain pills, enough for 21 pills per person per year
• Middlesex County: 137,418,883 prescription pain pills, enough for 24 pills per person per year
• Monmouth County: 121,791,490 prescription pain pills, enough for 27 pills per person per year
• Morris County: 66,849,768 prescription pain pills, enough for 19 pills per person per year
• Ocean County: 127,808,630 prescription pain pills, enough for 32 pills per person per year
• Passaic County: 64,252,125 prescription pain pills, enough for 18 pills per person per year
• Salem County: 16,448,840 prescription pain pills, enough for 35 pills per person per year
• Somerset County: 35,057,841 prescription pain pills, enough for 15 pills per person per year
• Sussex County: 27,753,763 prescription pain pills, enough for 26 pills per person per year
• Union County: 74,310,147 prescription pain pills, enough for 20 pills per person per year
• Warren County: 20,520,277 prescription pain pills, enough for 26 pills per person per year

>>>You can read the full report from The Washington Post here.