While the database doesn't specify what happened after the pharmacies received the shipments, it does illuminate the sheer number of pills that flooded communities. The data includes numbers from 2006 to 2012, the Post reported. Chain and retail pharmacies were included.

The database said 22 pharmacies within five miles of Cumming received 21,879,845 pills from 2006 to 2012. From 2006 to 2012 there were 27,162,025 prescription pain pills, enough for 23 pills per person per year, supplied to Forsyth County, the report said.

Here are the top five pharmacies in Forsyth County

• GOODSON DRUG CO, 116 MAPLE ST CUMMING GA 30040
  • Pills received from 2006-2012: 7,670,750 pills
• LAKESIDE PHARMACY, 1505 NORTHSIDE BLVD SUITE 1600 CUMMING GA 30041
  • Pills received from 2006-2012: 4,936,590
• KROGER DRUGSTORE #473, 2655 FREEDOM PARKWAY CUMMING GA 30041
  • Pills received from 2006-2012: 1,231,220
• WAL-MART PHARMACY 10-0878, 1500 MARKET PLACE BLVD CUMMING GA 30041
  • Pills received from 2006-2012: 978,240
• GEORGIA CVS PHARMACY, L.L.C., 1230 BUFORD HIGHWAY CUMMING GA 30041
  • Pills received from 2006-2012: 929,500

Areas flooded with pain pills saw far higher death rates related to opioids, the Post found. While the national rate was 4.6 deaths per 100,000 residents, counties that received the most pain pills per person saw rates that were more than three times higher.

According to the latest provisional data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were nearly 68,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States last year, a 5 percent decline from 2017. The agency predicted that number will rise to more than 680,000 once all data is reported to them.

Perhaps the most startling finding was that just 15 percent of pharmacies received nearly half of the pain pills.