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Shearer Drug of Albany, Ky., ranked first in the nation, dispensing 6,778,550 pills, or enough to give every person in surrounding Clinton County 96 pills a year. No. 4 was Booneville Discount Drugs in Owsley County, with 2,850,040 pills, or 86 per person per year. No. 6 was Glenn's Apothecary of Marion, with 5,171,800 pills, 80 per year for each person in Crittenden County.
Other Kentucky pharmacies in the top 50, their total pills and the amount per year for each resident of the county were: No. 16, Value-Med of Paintsville, 10,449,480, the third largest number of pills in the country (64); No. 18, Capps Pharmacy of Burkesville, 3,106,950 (64); No. 21, Hometown Pharmacy of Hyden, 4,935,500 (61); No. 22, Three Forks Apothecary of Beattyville, 3,307,670 (61); No. 25, Prescription Center of Morgantown, 5,128,760 (57); No. 26, Medicine Cabinet Pharmacy, Paintsville, 9,183,940 (56); No. 38, Mount Vernon Drug in Rockcastle County, 5,848,170 (49); and No. 42, Lyon Drug Store, Eddyville, 2,835,670 (48).
Those in the second 50, ranked by pills per person in the county, were No. 57, PEJ Inc. of Jackson in Breathitt County, 4,317,280 (43); No. 67, Rice Drugs of Beaver Dam, 6,716,610 (40); No. 75, Campton Pharmacare, 1,983,500 (39); No. 84, Weathers Drugs of Elkton, 3,227,880 (38); No. 94, Beringer Drug Center of Warsaw, 2,144,650 (37); Community Drug of Manchester, 5,691,230 (36); and No. 100, Evans Drug Co. of Fulton, 1,751,200 (36).
"While the crisis makes it clear that many of the opioids were diverted to the black market, the DEA database obtained by the Post does not track the pills after they reach the pharmacies," the newspaper reports. "There are legitimate reasons small pharmacies can have outsize volumes, including proximity to surgical centers." In Albany, Shearer Drug is next door to the building that once housed the office of former physician Michael Cummimngs; he was sentenced July 24 to 30 months in prison and fined $400,000 after pleading guilty to 13 counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances, the Clinton County News reports.
In a separate story, the Post reports that journalists in more than 30 states have published more than 90 stories based on the data, and uses an example from Pikeville: "In Kentucky, where the flow of pain pills left behind a trail of deaths from opioids, the DEA data didn’t come as a surprise to Russ Cassady, regional editor of the Appalachian News-Express. But he was still shocked by the magnitude of the figures. From 2006 to 2012, there were 66,785,120 prescription pain pills supplied to Pike County — 146 pills per person per year." Maria Sanchez Diez quotes Cassady: “We knew the numbers were bad, but it definitely gives some perspective," Cassady said. “The epicenter of the map you guys posted, the deep red counties, that’s us.” The story also notes coverage by The News Journal of Corbin and Lexington's WKYT-TV, as well as The Paintsville Herald's Aaron Nelson, which was previously reported by Kentucky Health News.
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