In Florida, the AP analysis underscores the difficulty of the state’s decade-long battle against “pill mills,” unscrupulous doctors who churn out dozens of prescriptions a day.
In 2000, Florida’s oxycodone sales were centered around West Palm Beach. By 2010, oxycodone was flowing to nearly every part of the state.
The AP combined this data with census figures to determine effective sales per capita.
A few ZIP codes that include military bases or Veterans Affairs hospitals have seen large increases in painkiller use because of soldier patients injured in the Middle East, law enforcement officials say. In addition, small areas around St. Louis, Indianapolis, Las Vegas and Newark, N.J., have seen their totals affected because mail-order pharmacies have shipping centers there, said Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
Many of the sales trends stretch across bigger areas.
In 2000, oxycodone sales were centered in coal-mining areas of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky — places with high concentrations of people with back problems and other chronic pain.
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!