DEA: Colorado had 1 billion prescription pain pills

As the opioid epidemic arrived in Colorado, 1,022,073,725 prescription pain pills flowed through the state during a sevenyear period, according to new federal data.

The pills hit Alamosa County the hardest. More than 9.4 million oxycodone and hydrocodone pills were distributed there between 2006 and 2012 — or enough for 88 pills per person per year.

The data, provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and made public this month by The Washington Post and HD Media, provide a new comprehensive look at an opioid crisis that has roiled communities across the nation.

The data, which follows the path of each pill — from manufacturer to distributor to pharmacy — sold in the United States, adds new context to the life cycle of the opioid crisis, said Robert Valuck, executive director of the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention.

“It helps us understand everybody who is involved in some way,” he said, noting that state and local officials have filed lawsuits against some of those accused of playing a role in the rise of the opioid crisis.

Overall, more than 1,000 Coloradans died of drug overdose, including by prescription pills, in 2017, up from 912 deaths the previous year, according to a 2018 report by the Colorado Health Institute.

Colorado’s attorney general filed a lawsuit last year against Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, for its role in the crisis. The attorney general’s office expanded the lawsuit earlier this month to include Purdue Pharma’s owners and former executives.

“This is a crisis,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said last month. “And it’s a crisis with many causes. One of which is irresponsible companies and executives who put profit over people, who took actions that were wrong, that were deceptive.”

Alamosa is one of the counties that have sued opioid makers and distributors over their marketing policies, claiming they contributed to the rise of opioid overdoses and deaths. Otero County is also part of the lawsuit.

Pueblo County was No. 2 in Colorado for the number of pills distributed, with 68 pills per person per year during the seven-year period, and Otero was third, with a supply equivalent to 66 pills per person per year.

In Denver, there were enough prescription pain pills for 18 per person per year, according to the data.

Various factors contributed to why some counties were hit harder than others by the opioid epidemic, including lack of access to other medical treatments, Valuck said.

As the epidemic hit crisis levels, lawmakers have pushed for stricter regulation, including prescription limits.

The state also has a higher number of people returning unused prescriptions, Valuck said.

Still, he said, “the death numbers are still too high.”