The Opioid Crisis by the Numbers 2006 – 2012: Where Cecil Stands

Cecil TV.

The Washington Post has gained access to the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, known as ARCOS. This database provides, in detail, a county by county accounting of hydrocodone and oxycodone prescriptions that were dispensed from 2006 through 2012, the retail pharmacies that dispensed them and the companies that sold them to the pharmacy. While there are areas of the U.S., such as parts of West Virginia, with more alarming rates of opioid use, the data provides some understanding of the origin of our current crises.

“The Washington Post and HD Media, which publishes the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia, waged a year-long legal battle for access to the database, which the government and the drug industry had sought to keep secret.” – Drilling into the DEA’s pain pill database, Washington Post, 7/21/2019

Read the full Washington Post story at: https://www.washingtonpost.com