Anita Wadhwani

Tennessee’s opioid crisis: An abbreviated timeline

1995

Food and Drug Administration approves OxyContin for prescription use. Its active ingredient, oxycodone, has been deemed highly addictive since the 1960s.

1999

5 percent of people receiving state-funded addiction treatment are abusing prescription pain relievers.

342 deaths due to drug overdoses

2000

416 individuals receive state-funded treatment services for opioid abuse.

2002

Tennessee becomes one of the first states to create a controlled substance database logging patient prescription history.

15.5 percent of young adults seeking treatment say prescription opioids are the primary source of their substance abuse.

2003

660 deaths due to drug overdoses

2005

Emergency rooms report a sharp increase in opioid poisoning, with 1,341 ER visits related to prescription pain abuse.

2006

A report by the University of Memphis sounds the alarm on prescription drug abuse. Researchers determine that abuse of opioids, morphine and other opiates has quickly risen in Tennessee, ranking second to marijuana in youth and adults.

2009

430 opioid overdose deaths

27 percent of women and 21 percent of men receiving state addiction treatment report prescription opioids as their primary substance of abuse.

963 deaths due to drug overdoses

2010

5,788 people arrested for opioid-related crimes

512 babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome

2011

1,062 opioid overdose deaths in Tennessee

2012

Tennessee officials petition the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to place a warning on certain opioids about the risks of neonatal abstinence syndrome, a step the FDA took the next year.

A survey of Tennessee 10th- and 12th-graders finds the average age at which they first abused prescription opioids was 14.

2015

CVS pharmacy announces plans to stock opioid overdose antidote drug in Tennessee and 11 other states. More than a dozen police forces around the state equip and train officers in administering an opioid overdose antidote.

Today

Tennessee has the second-highest rate of opioid prescriptions in the country — more than one prescription for every man, woman and child.

Read more in the Tennessean. 

Anita Wadhwani is an investigative reporter at The Tennessean. She joined the newspaper in 2001. Her previous beats have included diversity, religion, healthcare and social issues.