Data overview

Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS) is a nationwide system through which manufacturers and distributors report transactions of controlled substances to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States. The ARCOS data was a key piece of data in the National Prescription Opiate Litigation and through this portal, users can access the version of the ARCOS data constructed by Craig McCann, PhD, who was an expert witness for the plaintiffs. This data differs considerably from the publicly-available data from the DEA in that it contains individual transactions and therefore, each observation is a unique transaction for a specific opioid molecules (buprenorphine, codeine, dihydrocodeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, levorphanol, meperidine, methadone, morphine, powdered opium, oxycodone, oxymorphone, and tapentadol) from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2019.

Each observation in the data includes buyer information, seller/reporter information, and general transaction information.

Variable definitions are available here. A great resource to further understand the ARCOS variables is the ARCOS Registrant Handbook. The Handbook was originally written to provide instructions about how to supply data to ARCOS for manufacturers and distributors.

Nature of your inquiry

Data pulls will return individual, transaction-level data filtered by the selected parameters. Data pulls will not be aggregated or “rolled up” by group.

For example, if one were interested in all shipments involving oxycodone to Saint Joseph’s County, IN, in December of 2010, the first 10 lines of the report are below

Data Snapshot Example

Mission

The drug crisis has claimed over 1 million lives between 1999 and 2021, about the same number of deaths to soldiers in all US military conflicts since the Revolutionary War. Prescription opioid abuse has been at the heart of the crisis and understanding this epidemic is a key question for academic researchers, policy makers, and health professionals. As the ARCOS data has over 550 million transactions during this time period, this portal allows for public access to controlled substance transaction data, which is the same data available to both plaintiffs and defendants in the National Prescription Opioid Litigation, increasing transparency and enabling meaningful research by removing time-intensive barriers to data use.

Data use restrictions

These data are being made publicly available for the purpose of research and enhanced public well-being. Any effort to determine the identity of individuals associated with any reported transactions is prohibited. Therefore users will:

  • Use these data for statistical reporting and analysis only.
  • Present or publish aggregate results only (groups of 10 transactions or more). This includes written reports, figures, graphs, tables, etc.
  • Make no attempt to learn the identity of any patient, person, or establishment not already named in these data.