Report: 7.8 million painkiller prescriptions issued in Georgia in 2015

“All you have to do is say, ‘But I hurt,’ and they give you a pain prescription." — Pat Strickland of Gwinnett County, whose 33-year-old daughter died of an overdose.  

A whopping 7.8 million pain medication prescriptions were issued in Georgia last year, equivalent to more than one for every single adult in the Peach State amid a nationwide opioid overdose epidemic that is killing thousands of people each year, a new report shows.

Even at that high per capita rate of .77, Georgia ranked only 20th among states in 2015, according to the report. Alabama topped the list last year, followed by Tennessee.

Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chairwoman Renee Unterman of Buford said combating the problem is her No. 1 priority: “When you see the harm and the damage… I don’t know how it cannot be No. 1 for any elected official.”