Act 1 — Scale
98.1 billion pills.
Between 2006 and 2014, pharmaceutical distributors reported 98.1 billion doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone to the DEA. The curve rises through 2010 and then turns.
2006–2014
Where the pills went, who sent them, and who paid.
98,120,033,379pills shipped across the United States in nine years. This site follows the pill through the distribution system — and counts what came after.
Act 2 — Distributors
Three companies.
McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen carried roughly four out of every five pills in this dataset. The lines compare each company with everyone else combined, showing how concentrated the supply chain already was.
Act 3 — Enforcement
A quiet baseline.
Through the late 2000s, DEA administrative enforcement against opioid registrants ran at a low baseline — about 20 to 40 federal registrant actions per year, published in the Federal Register and aimed mostly at individual rogue prescribers.
2011: the agency spikes.
By 2011, with 98.1 billion pills moving through the distribution system, DEA registrant actions nearly tripled — 69 Federal Register dispositions in a single year — marking the start of the pharmacy-chain crackdowns.
Headlines over headcount.
The agency shifted tactics. Landmark settlements — Cardinal Health $34M, Walgreens $80M, CVS $22M — produced headlines but fewer total actions. The numbers drop; the dollar stakes rise.
By 2014, the spike is gone.
After the 2011 high and the big settlement years, published registrant actions fell back below 2007 levels by the end of this dataset. This chart does not make a claim about what happened after 2014.
Act 4 — Aftermath