“The number of opioid prescriptions being written is on the decline. Since a peak in 2010, the United States has seen a year after year reduction in the number of prescriptions for these painkillers through 2015.
But, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Thursday, that decline doesn’t tell the whole story. Opioid prescribing remains concerningly high—in 2015, the number of prescriptions being written was enough to keep every American medicated around the clock for three weeks—and a substantial amount of geographic variation exists within the prescription data.”