California received the largest amount of prescription painkillers between 2006 and 2012, with 8.1 billion pills distributed in the state over the six-year period, according to Drug Enforcement Administration data published by The Washington Post.
The DEA's prescription opioid database contains manufacturing and distribution information for every pain pill sold in the U.S. The Post gained access to the database after a yearlong legal battle.
The publication reviewed nearly 380 million transactions involving oxycodone and hydrocodone from 2006-12 and found more than 76 billion pills were distributed in the U.S over that time period.
Here is a breakdown of pain pill distribution by state:
Note: Figures in the billions are rounded to the nearest hundredth, unless that value would inaccurately denote a tie. For these states, figures are rounded to the nearest thousandth.
- California — 8.05 billion pills supplied between 2006 and 2012
- Florida — 5.56 billion
- Texas — 5.43 billion
- Ohio — 3.40 billion
- New York — 3.34 billion
- Pennsylvania — 3.09 billion
- Michigan — 2.85 billion
- North Carolina — 2.55 billion
- Tennessee — 2.52 billion
- Georgia — 2.27 billion
- Indiana — 2.12 billion
- Illinois — 1.94 billion
- Kentucky — 1.90 billion
- Washington — 1.86 billion
- South Carolina — 1.83 billion
- Arizona — 1.72 billion
- Alabama — 1.70 billion
- Missouri — 1.599 billion
- Virginia — 1.596 billion
- New Jersey — 1.52 billion
- Oklahoma — 1.40 billion
- Louisiana — 1.37 billion
- Oregon — 1.34 billion
- Wisconsin — 1.283 billion
- Massachusetts — 1.281 billion
- Maryland — 1.16 billion
- Colorado — 1.02 billion
- Nevada — 1 billion
- Arkansas — 894,469,483
- Kansas — 875,161,421
- Mississippi — 854,553,185
- West Virginia — 853,486,418
- Minnesota — 841,686,630
- Utah — 696,125,020
- Connecticut — 675,351,129
- Iowa — 562,927,414
- New Mexico — 522,109,039
- Maine — 397,787,254
- Idaho — 384,943,300
- Nebraska — 312,985,327
- New Hampshire — 280,960,084
- Delaware — 276,177,276
- Rhode Island — 255,084,145
- Montana — 245,472,116
- Hawaii — 218,979,758
- Alaska — 138,652,246
- Wyoming — 126,677,136
- Vermont — 123,414,703
- South Dakota — 115,426,857
- North Dakota — 89,455,642
To access more data from The Washington Post, click here.