FARGO (KFGO) – Nearly 89.5 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills were distributed to North Dakota pharmacies between 2006 and 2012. The data, provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was analyzed and compiled by the Washington Post.
About 46 pills per person, per year were distributed in Adams County, the highest ratio in North Dakota. Adams County States Attorney Aaron Roseland says the figure is likely inflated because the county is the home of West River Health Services, a critical access hospital in Hettinger that serves 20,000 patients in North Dakota and South Dakota.
“People are coming in here, getting prescribed whatever and going to the local pharmacy to fill it before they go home” Roseland said.
Roseland also says there appears to be no evidence that the relatively high number of pills in Adams County is having an effect on local crime.
“I have not, knock on wood, seen any related, correlated rise in crime” Roseland said. “We haven’t found distribution networks, we haven’t found evidence of street sales.”
The report says that the number of pills delivered to each county doesn’t necessarily mean that those pills went to residents in the same county. The largest amount of opioids in North Dakota was delivered to the Gateway Health Mart Pharmacy North location in Bismarck, which handled 2,593,000 pills.
The grand total of hydrocodone and oxycodone pills distributed to North Dakota between 2006 and 2012 was 89,455,642.
“It’s undeniable that the country is in an opioid epidemic. My impression is that the medical profession has clamped down on the prescribing of these narcotics. Unfortunately, that leaves a whole group of addicts that now don’t have access to what they were addicted to, so now they’re turning to street drugs” Roseland said.
The Washington Post’s full report is here.