Posted on 01/30/2018 7:28:06 AM PST by markomalley
Over the past decade, out-of-state drug companies shipped 20.8 million prescription painkillers to two pharmacies four blocks apart in a Southern West Virginia town with 2,900 people, according to a congressional committee investigating the opioid crisis.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee cited the massive shipments of hydrocodone and oxycodone — two powerful painkillers — to the town of Williamson, in Mingo County, amid the panel’s inquiry into the role of drug distributors in the opioid epidemic.
“These numbers are outrageous, and we will get to the bottom of how this destruction was able to be unleashed across West Virginia,” said committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and ranking member Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., in a joint statement.
The panel recently sent letters to regional drug wholesalers Miami-Luken and H.D. Smith, asking why the companies increased painkiller shipments and didn’t flag suspicious drug orders from pharmacies while overdose deaths were surging across West Virginia.
The letters outline high-volume shipments to pharmacies over consecutive days and huge spikes in pain pill numbers from year to year.
Between 2006 and 2016, drug wholesalers shipped 10.2 million hydrocodone pills and 10.6 million oxycodone pills to Tug Valley Pharmacy and Hurley Drug in Williamson, according to Drug Enforcement Administration data obtained by the House Committee.
Springboro, Ohio-based Miami-Luken sold 6.4 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to Tug Valley Pharmacy from 2008 to 2015, the company disclosed to the panel. That’s more than half of all painkillers shipped to the pharmacy those years. In a single year (2008 to 2009), Miami-Luken’s shipments increased three-fold to the Mingo County town.
Miami-Luken also was a major supplier to the now-closed Save-Rite Pharmacy in the Mingo County town of Kermit, population 400.
The drug wholesaler shipped 5.7 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to Save-Rite and a branch pharmacy called Sav-Rite #2 between 2005 and 2011, according records Miami-Luken gave the committee. In 2008, the company provided 5,624 prescription pain pills for every man, woman and child in Kermit.
In its letters, the panel also raised questions about Miami-Luken’s shipments to Westside Pharmacy in Oceana, Wyoming County. The committee cited documents that show a Miami-Luken employee reported a Virginia doctor, who operated a pain clinic located two hours from Oceana, was sending his patients to Westside Pharmacy, which filled the prescriptions.
In 2015, more than 40 percent of the oxycodone prescriptions filled by Westside Pharmacy in Oceana were coming from the Virginia doctor, according to the committee’s letter. The following year, the Virginia Board of Medicine suspended the doctor’s license, finding his practice posed a “substantial danger to public health and safety.”
The panel’s letter also mentions Miami-Luken’s suspicious shipments to Colony Drug in Beckley. In a five-day span in 2015, the drug wholesaler shipped 16,800 oxycodone pills to the pharmacy.
“In several instances, Colony Drug placed multiple orders for what appears to be excessive amounts of pills on consecutive days,” the committee wrote.
The House committee questioned H.D. Smith’s painkiller shipments to Family Discount Pharmacy in Logan County. The drug shipper distributed 3,000 hydrocodone tablets a day to the pharmacy in 2008, a 10-fold increase in sales from the previous year, according to the committee’s letter. The pharmacy, located in a town of 1,800 people, was shipped 1.1 million hydrocodone pills in 2008.
The House panel also cited Springfield, Illinois-based H.D. Smith for spikes in painkiller shipments to Sav-Rite, Westside Pharmacy, Tug Valley Pharmacy and Hurley Drug.
Oxycodone is sold under brand names like OxyContin, while hydrocodone brands include Vicodin and Lortab.
“The committee’s bipartisan investigation continues to identify systemic issues with the inordinate number of opioids distributed to small town pharmacies,” Walden and Pallone said in the statement. “The volume appears to be far in excess of the number of opioids that a pharmacy in that local area would be expected to receive.”
In a statement, H.D. Smith said it was reviewing the committee’s letter Monday.
“H.D. Smith works with its upstream manufacturing and downstream pharmacy partners to guard the integrity of the supply chain, and to improve patient outcomes,” the company said.
Miami-Luken did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In February 2016, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey ended a state lawsuit against Miami-Luken after the company agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle allegations that it flooded the state with painkillers. Morrisey, a former lobbyist for a trade group that represents Miami-Luken and other drug distributors, inherited the lawsuit in 2013 after ousting longtime Attorney General Darrell McGraw.
H.D. Smith paid the state $3.5 million to settle the same pill-dumping allegations in January 2017.
The committee gave H.D. Smith and Miami-Luken until Feb. 9 to turn over documents and answer dozens of questions about what steps, if any, the companies took to stop the flood of pain pills into Southern West Virginia.
“We will continue to investigate these distributors’ shipments of large quantities of powerful opioids across West Virginia, including what seems to be a shocking lack of oversight over their distribution practices,” Walden and Pallone said.
The state has the highest drug overdose death rate in the nation. More than 880 people fatally overdosed in West Virginia in 2016.
I was raised in a small town in very rural northern Mississippi. Practically Appalachian in its poverty. The town was dying then, in the 60’s, and is almost dead now................
I was born and raised in Williamson. Moved away in 1962 at age 15. Back then, it was a vibrant town of 8,000 in the heart of the coals fields. It was (then) a great place to grow up, families appeared to be strong. I had good memories of it.
Went back in 2007 for a funeral. I was shocked to see the decline citywide. Unkempt homes with many falling apart. Rundown doesn’t begin to describe it. No sense of pride anywhere. I learned from a Catholic priest that it was due to drugs.
Somewhat later I came across an article on the internet discussing the town’s decline and reason why. It painted a very bleak picture. Turned out to be a real Communist Party rag showing the virtues of “capitalism”. A real punch in the gut to read this article.
Sadly, these drugs are decimating cities and towns everywhere. Is this due to Big Pharma’s greed or is there something more sinister here?
Unscrupulous doctors profiteering off their trade in drugs, most likely. Probably shipping them out to overseas and locals alike. Big Pharma has nothing to do with it. Blaming them for the drug problem is no different than blaming Colt Arms for the gun violence.
The problem is liberalism policies that intentionally create these wastelands. Venezuela and West Virginia are both victims of the same disease: Socialism/Communism................
If you are concerned about the opioid situation and like to read, Lee Child’s recent “The Midnight Line” is another great Jack Reacher story. I’m not referring to that midget twat who plays him on the screen.
Come on... Pot’s worse, right?
Almost Heaven, West Virginia
You are 100% correct. It sounds horrible, but has anyone actually done the math? I did, and it averages out to about 2 pills per day, per person. I don't see the issue here.
Here's how I came to that:
20.8 million, divided by 2900 people = 7,172 pills per person. Spread out over 10 years, that is 717 pills per person per year. Divide that by 365 days, and you get 2 pills per day per person.
I did the math, too. This is just a bunch of bed wetting. Lol. Goofy people anyhow.
So, who are they faulting, the Drug Companies or the Doctors who are writing the Prescriptions?
No ticky, no Taco.
Is UPS being blamed? Is the USPS being blamed?, FedEx??
Check Joe Manchin’s garage. His daughter probably has a side business. :)
You are welcome. The inter-relationship of insurance (health and liability for companies) is interwoven with the marketing of “new” drugs (which are mostly not “new” but are called “me too-s” in the industry). So it is said by observers within the industry that there are “markets” for a new agent that may be said to have been created... i.e. they make the agent to treat a disease or the reverse an agent in search of a disease— so they “sell” the disease. Some being really “quality of life” that have both helped and hurt people (like Viagra etc- that early on created lots of dead old guys who thought they were studs out with young “professionals” and died in the saddle having put nitro fuel into a Model T heart. That’s a joke- but not too far off- the number one side effect in condoland S. Florida was old and newly inherited widows. On the other hand, the physical happiness and accompanying diagnosis of heart disease spun out of the invention of Viagra.
You mentioned biometrics— and you have a good point. In re: blood pressure- there is no doubt as regards strokes and “vascular events”. If one had diabetes (2 or 1) at the same time it’s doubled and etc. on the “risk factors”. But- and stay away from fake “natural” treatment- lose weight if overweight, get modest exercise (walking not aerobics-just walking normal on level surface, every day) and getting good rest/sleep, can dramatically lower bp. As for sleep- having sleep apnea means a person stops breathing while sleeping (for long periods ie. without oxygen) which over time develops into heart areas that die off from low oxygen—absolutely true. So the C-PAP or Bi-Pap has been a lifesaver for many people, men especially- experiencing a complete nights fully rested sleep for the first time in years not waking up tired. So there’s that.
Old timers in family lived to over 100 (3 males) by not taking any but essential blood pressure meds and having good genetics— they did drink a daily dose of “mountain Indian medicine” (LOL). Just some observations. Will leave you with this from a day spent with the world famous director of the Framingham Heart Study— “a stroke before one is 65 will ruin the rest of what years someone may have to really live (loss of speech, movement etc.)” Have never forgotten that, and do as much naturally to prevent vascular problems.
In general though, agree with all the “meds on meds” people are put on and have all kinds of liver and kidney problems because of interactions.
Working in forensic areas makes one very appreciative of life and living and the perspective that give.
It is painful to live in West Virginia?
1.965044874822863 pills a day per person over a ten year period. No rural folk or small towns nearby? I think your right, “Nothing to see here move along”.
Why does this story feel like a John Grisham novel in the making?
This assumes that all 2900 people are on opiods on a full time basis. Not a reasonable assumption.
Democrats and company cause opioid crisis no known cure.
Does the town have a name? I might know it...
Williamson......................
I wonder if you have to show your drivers license in West Virginia to get a Sudafed?
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