In 2016, 17 million painkillers were prescribed in Buncombe County, a sum that amounts to about 68 pills for every person living in the county.
Opioids, a broad category of drugs that includes codeine, oxycodone, Vicodin, fentanyl and heroin, are at the center of a nationwide epidemic that counties across the U.S., including Buncombe, are scrambling to solve. Between 2014 and 2015, North Carolina was one of 20 states that witnessed an increase in the number of drug overdoses related specifically to opioids, rising almost 15 percent.
“We’re calling it an epidemic because the number of people who are dying, particularly from overdoses of opioids whether they be … prescribed by the doctor or bought on the street, that number continues to rise,” said Dr. Melissa Hoffman, a trauma surgeon with Mission Health and a fellow in hospice and palliative medicine at the Mountain Area Health Education Center.
[For more on this story by David Floyd, go to https://mountainx.com/news/opi...be-county-town-hall/]
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