Number of Prescription Opioid Shipments in the U.S. Plummeted as Overdose Crisis Grew

New data shows the number of prescription opioid pills shipped in the United States plummeted in the second half of the 2010s, at the same time the nationwide overdoses crisis worsened, the Associated Press reports.

The Washington Post reports the number of prescription opioid pain pills shipped in the U.S. decreased almost 45% between 2011 and 2019. The data was collected by the Drug Enforcement Administration and released this week by attorneys involved in the lawsuits brought by state and local governments and Native American tribes against opioid makers, distributors and pharmacies.

The data shows the number of prescription oxycodone and hydrocodone pills peaked in 2011 at 12.8 billion pills, and dropped to fewer than 7.1 billion pills by 2019.

“We are still at an epidemic proportion of pills,” Peter Mougey, a lawyer representing governments involved in the lawsuits, said in an online news conference to release the data Tuesday. As prescription opioid shipments decreased, illicit opioids — including heroin and fentanyl — increased, and fatal overdoses rose, Mougey said.