780,069,272 pain pills

Would it be safe to say that a single pharmacy in the city of Kermit WV - population 392 - did not need almost 9M hydrocodone pills over a two year period?

Mingo County, where Kermit resides, has the fourth highest prescription opioid death rate of any county in the U.S.

In total, West Virginia received 224,260,980 oxycodone and 555,808,292 hydrocodone pills between 2007 and 2012. Six years. 780,069,272 pills. Not surprisingly, during that same time period 1,728 residents fatally overdosed (a 67 percent increase) on those drugs. There were likely manifold more that overdosed and did not die. And likely many of those pills traveled to neighboring states where they caused similar havoc.

There are overwhelmingly sad statistics, and personal stories, in this Charleston WV Gazette-Mail article by Eric Eyre entitled "Drug firms poured 780M painkillers into WV amid rise of overdoses."

Three drug wholesalers - McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug Co - were responsible for more than half (423M) of the pain pills in the state for a combined $17B in net (not gross, but net) income. That's a LOT of money. For a LOT of death and disrupted lives. A generation lost.

These wholesalers should be publicly shamed (at the very least). As should the prescribers, pharmacists, and pharmacies that looked the other way. And the WV Board of Pharmacy who did not enforce the rules or question the pharmacies awash in pills. And in some cases, family members or friends who did not intervene. All could make the argument, and have, that it's not solely their fault - they are only providing supply to demand ...

“McKesson's shipments were in response to orders placed by these registered entities,” the company's chief lawyer wrote. “Thus, McKesson lawfully shipped controlled substances to registered pharmacies.”

A spokesman for AmerisourceBergen suggested health experts and law enforcement authorities would be better able to comment on whether there's a link between pain-pill volumes and overdose deaths.

“All parties including pharmacies, doctors, hospitals, manufacturers, patients and state officials share the responsibility to fight opioid abuse,” said Ellen Barry, a spokeswoman for Cardinal Health.

The shareholders in McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug Co should be embarrassed in enabling this behavior. And the comments above.

Read the article. Read about Mary Kathryn Mullins and Chelsea Carter. Read about the Teamsters reaction. Read about dose escalation (i.e. tolerance). Read about a system designed to help patients that actually killed patients and "tore up" families.

Ludicrous? Malicious? Greedy? Incompetent? Worthy of prosecution? Yes.

And unconscionable.