ADHD Medication in Brooklyn vs Manhattan, 2021 to 2025

Data study

By the Beata Lewis MD practice · Published November 12, 2026

In 2025, manufacturers and distributors shipped 3,114 grams of amphetamine per 100,000 residents to pharmacies and other DEA-registered buyers in Brooklyn: less than a third of Manhattan’s 10,073 grams, and about a third of the U.S. figure of 8,942 grams, according to the DEA’s ARCOS shipment records.

Brooklyn, Manhattan and the other boroughs

Manhattan’s buyers received the most of all three medicines per resident, and the Bronx’s the least. Brooklyn received less than the state and U.S. figures for all three. Brooklyn was below the U.S. figure for amphetamine, and Manhattan above it, in every year from 2021 to 2025.

Grams distributed per 100,000 residents in calendar 2025. Boroughs are groups of 3-digit ZIP codes: Manhattan 100 to 102, Brooklyn 112, Queens 111, 113, 114 and 116, the Bronx 104, Staten Island 103. Source: DEA ARCOS Retail Drug Summary 2025, Report 01; Census Bureau population estimates, July 1, 2025; the U.S. row adds the DEA’s Report 04 rows for the 50 states and DC. Rates are our calculation.

Did the shortage years change the gap?

FDA first listed mixed amphetamine salts tablets as in shortage on October 12, 2022, and lisdexamfetamine capsules on July 14, 2023; both were still listed as current shortages on November 12, 2026, according to the FDA drug shortage database.

In the ARCOS data, amphetamine shipments fell from 2022 to 2023 in every borough, in the state and in the U.S. They fell hardest in Manhattan: down 25% from 2022, against 5% in Brooklyn. By 2025, Brooklyn’s amphetamine grams were back above their 2022 level, while Manhattan’s were still 18% below. So the gap narrowed: Manhattan received 4.3 times Brooklyn’s amphetamine per resident in 2021 and 3.2 times in 2025. ARCOS does not record why.

Grams of amphetamine distributed per 100,000 residents, by year. Each year is divided by that year’s July 1 population estimate. Manhattan’s estimated population dipped in 2021, which raises its per-resident figure for that year, so the changes below use grams. Source: DEA ARCOS Retail Drug Summary 2021 to 2025, Reports 01 and 04; Census Bureau population estimates.

Total grams of amphetamine distributed in each year, and the change. Source: DEA ARCOS Retail Drug Summary 2022, 2023 and 2025, Report 01 (U.S.: Report 04, 50 states and DC).

What this means if you are looking for ADHD care in Brooklyn

• These figures count pharmacies, not patients. ARCOS records where a medicine was delivered, not where the person who takes it lives. Many Brooklyn residents work in Manhattan and may fill prescriptions near work, and Manhattan pharmacies also serve commuters and visitors, so a low Brooklyn figure does not by itself show that fewer Brooklynites take these medicines.
• The shortage years did not hit every neighborhood’s pharmacies the same way. Shipments to Manhattan fell much further in 2023 than shipments to Brooklyn. If your usual pharmacy cannot fill a prescription, another pharmacy may be stocked differently, and calling a few days before a refill is due is the surest check. Our guide to what to do during a stimulant shortage covers the practical steps.
• A borough total is not a pharmacy shelf. A year of shipments to a whole borough cannot show whether one pharmacy has a particular medicine and strength in stock on a given day.
• Changes to a medicine belong with the person who prescribes it. If you cannot find what you were prescribed, talk to the clinician who wrote the prescription before switching medicines, forms or doses. ADHD care with the practice in Brooklyn starts with a discovery call.

Method

Manufacturers and distributors report their sales of Schedule II drugs, including these three medicines, to the DEA’s Automated Reports and Consolidated Ordering System (ARCOS). Each year the DEA publishes a Retail Drug Summary of sales to pharmacies, hospitals, practitioners and other DEA-registered buyers.

We used Report 01, which gives the grams sold in each quarter to buyers in each 3-digit ZIP code area, for three DEA drug codes: amphetamine (1100; the DEA lists Adderall and Dexedrine among its other names), lisdexamfetamine (1205; Vyvanse) and methylphenidate (1724; Concerta, Ritalin and Methylin), from the DEA’s list of controlled substances. We took the five reports for calendar 2021 to 2025; the 2025 report was run on June 30, 2026. Brooklyn is ZIP3 112; Manhattan is 100, 101 and 102; the Bronx 104; Staten Island 103; Queens 111, 113, 114 and 116.

Our script reads the tables from the DEA’s PDF files and checks them: the four quarters add up to each year’s total, the New York ZIP code rows add up to the DEA’s New York total, and that total matches Report 04. We divided each area’s grams by its July 1 resident population estimate for the same year from the Census Bureau’s county estimates (each borough is a county). The U.S. figure adds the DEA’s rows for the 50 states and DC and divides by their combined population on the same basis. A separate check script downloads the 2025 report again, reads it with a different PDF library and different Census tables, and confirms the headline figures.

The DEA prints its own rates in Report 04, using the 2020 Census count in every year and a U.S. total that includes the territories. On that basis New York State received 6,296 grams of amphetamine per 100,000 people in 2025, against our 6,359 with the 2025 population estimate.

Limits of the data

• Shipments, not people. ARCOS counts grams shipped to buyers. It does not count patients, prescriptions or doses, does not record what a medicine was prescribed for, and cannot say whether a lower figure reflects less demand, fewer prescribers, different prescribing habits or harder-to-find stock.
• Counted where the buyer is. Each sale is placed at the buyer’s registered ZIP code. Medicine bought by a Manhattan pharmacy counts in Manhattan even when the person who fills the prescription lives in Brooklyn, and a pharmacy that delivers or mails prescriptions counts in its own ZIP code.
• ZIP codes and borough lines differ slightly. We left ZIP3 110 out of Queens because it is mostly Nassau County; the small Queens areas inside it count in the rest of the state. A few addresses sit in one borough with another borough’s ZIP code.
• One medicine at a time. Each medicine is reported in its own grams, so we compare areas within each medicine and never add different medicines together.
• Population estimates. July 1 estimates are revised each year; Manhattan’s fell sharply in 2021 and recovered later, so we describe changes over time in grams.
• Revisions. The DEA notes that ARCOS reports can be updated and corrected. Our figures are from the reports as downloaded on November 12, 2026.

Sources

• DEA Diversion Control Division, ARCOS Retail Drug Summary, calendar 2021 (run April 5, 2022), Reports 01 and 04: www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/arcos/retail_drug_summary/report_yr_2021.pdf
• DEA Diversion Control Division, ARCOS Retail Drug Summary, calendar 2022 (run August 1, 2023), Reports 01 and 04: www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/arcos/retail_drug_summary/report_yr_2022.pdf
• DEA Diversion Control Division, ARCOS Retail Drug Summary, calendar 2023 (run May 31, 2024), Reports 01 and 04: www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/arcos/retail_drug_summary/report_yr_2023.pdf
• DEA Diversion Control Division, ARCOS Retail Drug Summary, calendar 2024 (run June 26, 2025), Reports 01 and 04: www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/arcos/retail_drug_summary/report_yr_2024.pdf
• DEA Diversion Control Division, ARCOS Retail Drug Summary, calendar 2025 (run June 30, 2026), Reports 01 and 04: www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/arcos/retail_drug_summary/report_yr_2025.pdf
• DEA Diversion Control Division, ARCOS overview: www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/arcos/arcos.html
• DEA, Controlled Substances in Alphabetical Order (drug codes and other names): www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/schedules/orangebook/c_cs_alpha.pdf
• U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2025 county and state estimates, July 1, 2021 to 2025: co-est2025-alldata.csv
• FDA Drug Shortages database, as of November 12, 2026, read through the openFDA drug shortages API: dps.fda.gov/drugshortages

This page reports public supply data. It is not medical advice and does not say whether any medicine is right for anyone; that decision belongs to you and a clinician who has evaluated you.

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