Worcester Business Journal

6 Worcester Business Journal | August 5, 2019 | wbjournal.com Just as the opioid epidemic grew into a crisis, Worcester was flooded with more pills than any other city BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor I n the years just before the number of opioid-related deaths skyrocket- ed in Massachusetts and the nation, Worcester became the opioid painkiller capital of New England. More than 49 million opioid painkill- ers – Oxycontin, Vicodin and others – were distributed to Worcester pharmacies in a seven-year period ending in 2012, far more than any other city in New En- gland, illustrating how many opportuni- ties there were for addiction in the years just before opioid deaths spiked. Surrounding areas had high rates, too. More than 190 million prescrip- tion opioid pain pills were distributed in Worcester County over that same seven-year period, enough for 34 pills per person per year, according to newly released U.S. Drug Enforcement Ad- ministration data that for the first time shows exactly where millions of addic- tive prescription pills were distributed in communities across the country. Across Worcester County and in the city of Worcester itself, the number of opioid pills distributed rose by 41% from 2006 to 2012. ose pills flooded into the Worcester area and elsewhere long aer opioid addiction risks were well known but be- fore deaths soared, which could lead to questions of how much local prescribers were culpable in signing off on so many pills that led to an addiction crisis. "We know the trend was to use pain medications for pretty much everything," said Romas Buivydas, the vice president of clinical development for Worcester's Spectrum Health Systems, an addiction treatment provider where 72% of all ad- missions in the past year were opioid-re- lated. "Now we know there's an inherent The OPIOID capital danger of addiction." Worcester had easily the most dis- tributed opioid pills of any city in New England, and more than double the amount prescribed in Boston. Statistics in Athol and Gardner, two small communities in northern Worces- ter County, are even worse. Athol, a city of less than 12,000, had nearly 7 million pills distributed to its pharmacies during that period – enough for 84 pills each year for every man, woman and child. Gardner, with city of less than 21,000 people, had nearly 12 million opioids – enough for 82 pills each year per resident. Rate of prescription opioids per capita tripled the state rate in those cities. In Worcester, it was 37% greater than the state average, and in Leominster, it was 72% higher. Worcester County was fih highest in Massachusetts for the annual rate of pills prescribed per person among the state's 14 counties, according to the DEA data, which was published by e Washington Post in July following a lawsuit it filed with the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia to access the records. Numbers everywhere may be higher: e DEA data of shipments of oxyco- done and hydrocodone pills account for three-quarters of the total opioid pill shipments to pharmacies, e Post said. Codeine, methadone, suboxone and fen- tanyl are not included in the database. e number of pills given to patients is not disclosed, nor are the names of those prescribing the medications. Risks were known Opioid painkiller addiction risks were widely known well before the period for which the DEA data is now available. In 2001, the DEA urged Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut maker of Oxy- Contin, to limit how it marketed and distributed the drug. e agency said then no prescription drug in the prior 20 years had been so widely abused so soon aer its release. OxyContin was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1995, with the FDA later saying it wasn't fully aware that crushing or snorting the pills would lead to widespread abuse. at same year, the of OxyContin pills began making headlines, includ- ing one case in which masked gunmen robbed a Boston store for the pills. For years starting in the 1980s, though, providers were trained as seeing pain as a so-called fih vital sign – along with temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure – said Robert Ready, the associate chief nursing officer at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester. "If a patient said they had pain, we treated the pain," Ready said. "is culture was built and educated in the medical and nursing community and is well evidenced in the medical and nursing textbooks." e U.S. Centers for Disease Con- trol and Prevention warns prescribers against addiction risks with opioid medications. e CDC advises doctors opioids are not the first option or routine therapy for chronic pain, and patients should be advised of addiction risks before A CVS on Stafford Street in Worcester stocked more than 4.6 million opioid pills, and a Walgreens across the street 940,000. W O R C E S T E R C O U N T Y W O R C E S T E R WBJ PHOTO ILLUSTRATION PHOTO/GRANT WELKER

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