Federal Drug Enforcement Administration data says about 1.6 billion prescription pain pills were supplied to Missouri pharmacies from 2006 to 2012.
The information provided to the Washington Post says St. Louis County leads the state with 218 million pain pills supplied during that time span. Western Missouri’s Jackson County follows with 166 million and Greene County in southwest Missouri with 102 million.
When figuring the per person annual average, the top four counties are in southeast Missouri – Butler, St. Francois, Pemiscot and Dunklin. In Butler County, the data says enough pills are supplied there to give each resident 99 pills per year.
Scott City Rep. Holly Rehder of Scott City, whose district includes southeast Missouri, has filed legislation for seven consecutive years that would require the state to build a prescription drug monitoring program. Missouri is the only state in the country without a statewide system looking for cases of prescription drug misuse.
To view the federal data, click here.
