Excerpt: “The data appears to show a considerable increase in the amount of hydrocodone and oxycodone that wholesale distributors provided to these locations over several years. For example, in 2005, distributors supplied 57,000 grams of oxycodone to these areas overall. By 2012, that amount appears to have doubled to nearly 117,000 grams, according to ARCOS data. Similarly, the amount of hydrocodone shipped to these areas appears to show a 60 percent increase in just three years: from 102,000 grams in 2005 to 164,000 grams in 2008. Such dramatic increases in the supply of these drugs do not seem to be explained by usual market forces. For example, hydrocodone had been in existence for decades by the time these trends began. Demographic changes also do not seem to adequately account for these increases in supply, as West Virginia’s population rose just 2.5 percent between 2000 and 2010.”

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