Billions of opioid pain pills flooded New York during a seven-year stretch that ignited the historic drug-addiction epidemic, new records show.
While devastating statewide, the deadly wave of prescription painkillers hit some communities hardest across the Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley and Southern Tier, according to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration data obtained by The Washington Post and analyzed by the USA TODAY Network New York.
Meanwhile, here’s how the data bears out in the Finger Lakes:
Cayuga: 25 pills per person, or 14.01 million overall.
Ontario: 32.9 pills per person, or 24.6 million overall.
Schuyler: 33.2 pills per person, or 4.29 million overall.
Seneca: 26.9 pills per person, or 6.6 million overall.
Steuben: 31.6 pills per person, or 21.8 million overall.
Yates: 21.8 pills per person, or 3.8 million overall.
Wayne: 31.6 pills per person, or 20.7 million overall.
The data painted a grim picture about how 76 billion painkillers flowed into American homes across every community in the United States.
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