Your Trusted Source for Prescription Drug Monitoring Information
By the Numbers
Key figures on prescription drug monitoring and the overdose crisis, each linked to its source.
54
Operational PDMPs nationwide
All 50 states, DC, Guam, Puerto Rico and the N. Mariana Islands. Source: PDMP TTAC state profiles, Oct 2026.
66,478
Overdose deaths in 12 months
Predicted provisional, 12 months ending May 2026. Source: CDC NCHS VSRR, updated Oct 14, 2026.
35.4
Opioid prescriptions per 100 people
U.S. retail opioid dispensing rate, 2024. Source: CDC Opioid Dispensing Rate Maps.
$1.47T
Cost of opioid crisis, 2020
Includes health care, crime, lost productivity, quality of life and lives lost (2020 dollars). Source: U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, Sept 2022.
Figures are the latest published by each source as of October 2026. Overdose counts are provisional and will change.
Breaking PDMP News and Updates
A Kratom-Derived Opioid, a Mislabeled Package, and a Blind Spot for PDMPs
A San Francisco death linked to MGM-15, found in a product sold as “cat’s claw,” shows how a fast-changing, mislabeled opioid market sits entirely outside prescription monitoring.
DOJ’s Los Angeles Takedown Puts Data Analytics and Addiction-Treatment Integrity in Focus
The Justice Department’s October 22 announcement pairs what DOJ calls its largest sober-home fraud case with cases flagged by billing analytics, a combination that speaks directly to how treatment integrity is policed.
Medetomidine Withdrawal: Two New Studies Sharpen a Growing Clinical Concern
As the veterinary sedative medetomidine displaces xylazine in Philadelphia and parts of the Northeast and Midwest, a single case report and a transport study add detail to a withdrawal syndrome that can require intensive care.
CDC: Stimulants Were Involved in 59% of U.S. Overdose Deaths From 2021 to Mid-2024, Mostly Alongside Opioids
A CDC analysis of more than 309,000 overdose deaths found that stimulants, mainly methamphetamine and cocaine, were involved in 59% of them, and that nearly three in four of those deaths also involved opioids. Prescription stimulants were rarely involved. Final 2024...
Sydney Case Series: Five of Six Nitazene-Dependence Patients Had Unknowingly Vaped the Drug
Five of six patients treated at a Sydney service had been vaping products they believed held cannabis or nicotine; testing found protonitazene, and treatment required high-dose buprenorphine. By Don Vogt, Editor Source: Dutkiewicz et al., Drug and Alcohol Review, 2026...
NIST Drug-Checking Data Show Fentanyl Adulterants Shifting by Region and Over Time
Medetomidine is displacing xylazine, an industrial chemical called BTMPS has spread since mid-2024, and Western fentanyl samples were purer than Eastern ones, according to NIST’s RaDAR program. By Don Vogt, Editor Source: NIST news release, Oct. 8, 2026, and the...
Medetomidine Withdrawal: Two New Studies Sharpen a Growing Clinical Concern
As the veterinary sedative medetomidine displaces xylazine in Philadelphia and parts of the Northeast and Midwest, a single case report and a transport study add detail to a withdrawal syndrome that can require intensive care.
PDMP Mandates Trimmed Buprenorphine Shipments to Pharmacies, but Mandates Plus EHR Integration Lifted Methadone Supply
University of Iowa researchers looked at 13 years of state PDMP policy and found that mandatory use alone was followed by less buprenorphine reaching pharmacies, while states that paired a mandate with EHR integration saw more methadone reach treatment programs. By...
After Victoria Mandated Its PDMP, Only Half of Surveyed Pharmacists Said They Checked It Every Time
A Monash University survey of community pharmacists in Victoria, Australia, found that the share who said they always used the state's real-time PDMP roughly doubled after a mandate, from about one in four to about one in two. Pharmacists outside Melbourne and those...
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