The Drug Enforcement Agency tracks every pill manufactured, distributed and shipped to pharmacies nationwide in a database called ARCOS. Reporters at The Washington Post won a long court battle to release details from that database, which they made public and used to track the spread of opioids across the country.

Like other drugs, opioid prescriptions vary by dosage and days supply, so one way to compare them is by calculating a measurement called MME - morphine milligram equivalents. The CDC's guidelines say a typical opioid prescription – 5 mg of hydrocodone every four hours – totals 30 MME per day. By this conservative measure, pharmacies in many counties dispensed enough opioids to medicate every one of its residents around the clock for days.

Select a county below to see how the annual MME per person for pills shipped to each county changed from 2006 to 2012, according the most recent data made available publicly by The Washington Post from the DEA's ARCOS database.

ALAMANCE ALEXANDER ALLEGHANY ANSON ASHE AVERY BEAUFORT BERTIE BLADEN BRUNSWICK BUNCOMBE BURKE CABARRUS CALDWELL CAMDEN CARTERET CASWELL CATAWBA CHATHAM CHEROKEE CHOWAN CLAY CLEVELAND COLUMBUS CRAVEN CUMBERLAND CURRITUCK DARE DAVIDSON DAVIE DUPLIN DURHAM EDGECOMBE FORSYTH FRANKLIN GASTON GATES GRAHAM GRANVILLE GREENE GUILFORD HALIFAX HARNETT HAYWOOD HENDERSON HERTFORD HOKE HYDE IREDELL JACKSON JOHNSTON JONES LEE LENOIR LINCOLN MACON MADISON MARTIN MCDOWELL MECKLENBURG MITCHELL MONTGOMERY MOORE NASH NEW HANOVER NORTHAMPTON ONSLOW ORANGE PAMLICO PASQUOTANK PENDER PERQUIMANS PERSON PITT POLK RANDOLPH RICHMOND ROBESON ROCKINGHAM ROWAN RUTHERFORD SAMPSON SCOTLAND STANLY STOKES SURRY SWAIN TRANSYLVANIA TYRRELL UNION VANCE WAKE WARREN WASHINGTON WATAUGA WAYNE WILKES WILSON YADKIN YANCEY

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Animate

2006

Wake

211.59

MME per person

7

Days of opioids for each county resident

From 2006 to 2012, the morphine milligram equivalent of pills shipped to Wake County pharmacies increased from 212 to 309 per person. That's a change of about 46 percent.

Graphic by Tyler Dukes
Source: The Washington Post