37 Million Painkillers Flooded Long Beach-Area Pharmacies

LONG BEACH, NY — Billions of painkillers flowed through nearly 83,000 pharmacies across the country, including many in Long Beach. 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 27 pharmacies within five miles of Long Beach received over 36 million pills from 2006 to 2012. That five-mile radius has a population of about 78,631.

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

B J K INC

790 PARK PLACE, LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 14.7 million

CHEM RX PHARMACY SERVICES

790 PARK PLACE, LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 4.5 million

639, EAST PARK AVE INC

639 EAST PARK AVENUE, LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 2 million

CVS ALBANY

310 WEST PARK AVENUE, LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 1.4 million

LONG BEACH CHEMISTS INC

170 WEST PARK AVENUE, LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 1 million

TAMBE DRUG INC

26 WEST PARK AVE, LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 107,800

RITE AID

23 EAST PARK AVENUE, LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 704,540

THE GREAT ATLANTIC & PACIFIC

85 EAST PARK AVENUE, LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 532,460

WALGREENS

606 LONG BEACH BLVD, LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 804,060

KINGS PHARMACY EAST INC

639 EAST PARK AVE, LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 542,080

PARINDA

1054 WEST BEECH STREET, LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 761,640

SURFSIDE CHEMISTS

1079 WEST BEECH ST., LONG BEACH, NY 11561

Pills received: 212,840

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 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 staffer Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.