Tennessee physicians wrote more than 7.8 million opioid prescriptions in 2015 for the state's 6.5 million residents, according to The Tennessean.
Here are three things to know.
- Tennessee ranks second in the nation behind Alabama for states with the most prescriptions of opioids, according to IMS Health Data. Tennessee had 1.18 prescriptions per capita, compared to Alabama's 1.2 per person.
- The state has seen a drop in prescriptions since 2013, when physicians wrote 8.5 million scripts. However, Tennessee still remains a leader in prescribing oxycodone, hydrocodone and Percocet, according to the report.
- In 2014, 1,263 Tennesseans died from an opioid overdose tied to either pain killers or heroin.