Oklahoma’s Opioid Crisis

With nearly 5% of Oklahoma’s population ages 12 and older abusing or misusing painkillers, the state leads the nation in non-medical use of painkillers, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

The AG’s office has reported that:

Between 2006 and 2012, there were over 1.4 billion opioid pills distributed in Oklahoma.

Drug overdose deaths in Oklahoma increased eightfold from 1999 to 2012, surpassing car crash deaths in 2009.

In 2012, Oklahoma had the fifth-highest unintentional poisoning death rate and prescription opioids contributed to the majority of those deaths.

Between 2013 and 2017, an average of 21 Oklahomans died every month from an unintentional prescription opioid overdose.

In 2014, Oklahoma’s unintentional poisoning rate was 107% higher than the national rate;

In 2017, prescriptions for opioids were dispensed at a rate of 479 prescriptions per hour, enough for every adult in Oklahoma to have the equivalent of 156 pills.