The Washington Post has published a digital, interactive feature to show people the number of pain pills that flooded the United States, down to the state and county level.
For Mingo County, West Virginia, for example, there were 38,269,630 prescription pain pills supplied from 2006 to 2012.
MORE: Drilling into the DEA’s Pain pill database
The Opioid Files: Today, The Washington Post is publishing a significant portion of a government database that records the flood of prescription opioid pain pills distributed across the U.S.
Discover how many were sold near you and by whom. https://t.co/MhtNdPxBa3
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 18, 2019
The Washington Post sifted through nearly 380 million transactions from 2006 through 2012 that are detailed in a database maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Access to the DEA’s Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, known as ARCOS, came after a year-long court battle by The Washington Post and HD Media, which publishes the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia.
.@ScottHigham1 joins @HoppyKercheval to discuss the new numbers on distribution of prescription of opioids. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIAoe1 pic.twitter.com/OjoAn2O35u
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) July 18, 2019