Painkiller Sales Soar Around US, Fuel Addiction

But by 2010, the strongest oxycodone sales had overtaken most of Tennessee and Kentucky, stretching as far north as Columbus, Ohio and as far south as Macon, Ga.

Per-capita oxycodone sales increased five- or six-fold in most of Tennessee during the decade.

“We’ve got a problem. We’ve got to get a handle on it,” said Tommy Farmer, a counterdrug official with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Many buyers began crossing into Tennessee to fill prescriptions after border states began strengthening computer systems meant to monitor drug sales, Farmer said.

In 2006, only 20 states had prescription drug monitoring programs aimed at tracking patients. Now 40 do, but many aren’t linked together, so abusers can simply go to another state when they’re flagged in one state’s system. There is no federal monitoring of prescription drugs at the patient level.

One comment

  1. Nice of you to join us! It is an EPIDEMIC of wide proportion!!! It is the noitans worst enemy! Get rid of the Dr. That are handing them out like pez candy and just maybe #1 people will hit off their lazy ass to work and stop taking disability and welfare. (stop playing their game!) # 2 save lives, but we need caring resources for long term help! (these people can no longer function in society) It is not just the surface we are looking at. I know my niece has been handed drugs for 10 years from doctors! They know she is an addict .rotten teeth, no brain! I have friends whom families have been ruined because the resources have taken every penny. Just saying .it is a terrible, terrible disease! Please help!

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