Where are the drugs from?

The oxycodone problem is significant, especially in small northern communities, where a little bit of addiction goes a long way in disabling a whole community. Clinicians in our region are aware of the devastation opioid addiction can cause and are careful with prescribing. The authors of “Prescribing of opioid analgesics and related mortality before and after the introduction of long-acting oxycodone”¹ note that many people with fatal overdoses have seen a doctor for a prescription in a preceding time frame. What is not clear is whether that is their main source of narcotics. Do the authors have any information on nonprescribed narcotic abuse/access? Is the problem that individual prescriptions are being misused or the access to illicit bulk narcotic drug trade?