The number of prescription opioid pills shipped in the U.S. in the second half of the 2010s decreased sharply even as a nationwide overdose crisis continued to deepen, according to data released Tuesday.
The decline in painkiller prescriptions — finally dropping below the quantities sold in the mid-2000s when the overdose epidemic accelerated — happened after state and federal governments tightened prescribing guidelines and state, local and Native American tribal governments sued the industry over the toll of the addictive drugs.
“We are still at an epidemic proportion of pills,” Peter Mougey, a lawyer representing governments that are suing drugmakers, distribution companies and pharmacies, said in an online news conference to release the data Tuesday.
The distribution data is being released by lawyers after a judge ordered the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to share it with the plaintiffs. The governments assert that the companies should have done more to stop the flow of opioids when they saw that more than necessary were flowing to pharmacies and patients.
Hellbound and Down 