An Associated Press analysis shows that sales of the two most popular prescription painkillers in the United States have exploded in new parts of the country.
There have been dramatic rises between 2000 and 2010 in the distribution of oxycodone, the key ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan, according to data from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Some places saw sales increase sixteenfold.
Meanwhile, the distribution of hydrocodone, the key ingredient in Vicodin, Norco and Lortab, is rising in Appalachia, the original epicenter of the U.S. painkiller epidemic, as well as in the Midwest.
Read the full report here. Here's a graphical look at the AP analysis.
