The Washington Post (7/24, Achenbach, Koh, Bennett, Mara) reports, “Southwest Virginia is among the regions in the United States hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, which has roots in prescription” analgesics. Newly-released “Drug Enforcement Administration data obtained and analyzed by The Washington Post” demonstrate “the swollen pipeline of prescription opioids from factories to pharmacies from 2006 to 2012.” The opioid epidemic “has been particularly brutal…in central Appalachia, which has seen the coal industry contract and now has some of the highest poverty and disability rates in the nation.” As to “how and why Appalachia became the epicenter of the epidemic,” this “is partly due to the real need for painkillers among workers hurt in coal mines and in other types of physically demanding jobs,” and also to the fact that opioid analgesics “were more addictive than people realized.”
Related Links:
— “Flooded with opioids, Appalachia is still trying to recover, “Joel Achenbach, Joyce Koh, Dalton Bennett, The Washington Post, July 24, 2019