Martinsville, Va. — The city of Martinsville is again near the top of a dubious nationwide list: opioid use by local residents. According to a just-released Washington Post analysis, Martinsville is one of two cities in Virginia leading the country in the number opioid prescriptions.

The city of Norton tops the list in Virginia, averaging a total of 306 pills per person. Martinsville wasn’t far behind, averaging 242 pills per person. The data examined the nation’s pills per capita between 2006 and 2012.

The results mirror the data contained in a lawsuit filed by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring against pharmaceutical maker Purdue Pharma. The suit claims the company distributed 150 million opioid pills and patches 2008 to 2017.  According to Herring’s office, drug companies distributed around 76 billion pills into communities nationwide and 100,000 Americans died of opioid overdoses.

The Virginia Department of Health reports the number of fatalities in the state has risen steadily since 2017, reaching 1,534 deaths in 2017. Between 2015 and 2016, the fatal overdoses increased by 38.9 percent across the state — the highest increase on record.