EDITORIAL

Two-Edged OxyContin

These green 80 milligram OxyContin tablets sell for $80 each on the street. The pink 20 milligram tablets fetch $20 each. This pain reliever is becoming the recreational drug of choice in Maine, authorities say.
These green 80 milligram OxyContin tablets sell for $80 each on the street. The pink 20 milligram tablets fetch $20 each. This pain reliever is becoming the recreational drug of choice in Maine, authorities say.
Posted May 05, 2011, at 8:55 p.m.
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Maine leads the nation in OxyContin addiction, with its accompanying high rates of robbery, vehicle crashes, overdoses and death. Yet many doctors value this drug, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 1995, as a powerful tool in pain management.

Holdups and break-ins are the most spectacular means by which addicts get the drug. Pharmacy robberies and burglaries in Maine have shot up from only two in 2008 and seven in 2008 to 21 in 2010, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. A recent one was in April at a CVS pharmacy in Sanford. A woman claimed she had a gun and threatened to shoot if she didn’t get a prescription for OxyContin.

More commonly, abusers get the pills from family members or friends who have obtained them with legal prescriptions. In addition, dealers have been getting a supply from cooperative physicians in this country or Canada and bringing them to Maine. An 80-milligram pill is said to sell for $100.

The drug is produced by Purdue Pharma, and its active ingredient is oxycodone, an opium derivative like morphine. The pills are coated, to provide a gradual release over 12 hours. Addicts chew them up, so as to get a euphoric high and sense of personal power. Some abusers also dissolve the pills and inject the fluid by needle.

Authorities say that the drug carries a special appeal to low-paid workers who labor long hours under difficult conditions.

Maine’s leadership in OxyContin addiction is measured by a surge in the rate of treatment over the past decade. In 2008, Maine had 386 people per 100,000 under treatment for addiction by opioid (opium-derived) drugs, eight times the national average, up from only 28 per 100,000 in 1998. Vermont followed closely with 331 per 100,000, up from 20 in 1998. Other states lag far behind.

Maine authorities were already calling the painkiller addiction an epidemic in 2000. Jay McCloskey, then the U.S. attorney in Maine, and Bangor police Lt. Peter Arno led a two-year campaign against the drug, trying to persuade Maine high school students to avoid trying it. Mr. McCloskey said in 2001: “I believe it is the greatest criminal problem and possibly the greatest social problem facing Maine.”

The U.S. FDA last year approved a new formulation of OxyContin designed to resist tampering and abuse. The pills are treated so that dissolving produces a gummy substance that cannot be drawn into a syringe or injected. It is not clear how the new formulation can discourage chewing or crushing the tablets.

It will take better efforts by the drug maker, state and federal regulators, police, drug-enforcement agencies, and, above all, restraint by tempted abusers to abate this still-mounting epidemic. But pain control is essential, so outlawing OxyContin would be unwise.

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  • yowsayowsa1

    Doctors need to change the mindset that they have to do everything possible to relieve pain and suffering.
    Striking a balance between short term pain reduction and the long term effects of opiate addiction should be the goal rather than writing a script and sending the patient home.
    The pain and suffering of addiction lasts a lifetime and is endured not just by the user, but by all that are associated with them.

  • Anonymous

    There needs to be some changes in the pharma business practices. They, through their pursuit of profits have contrived to have their products become part and parcel to daily life. They have created an atmosphere where it becomes unnormal to feel anything. They have come up with medications to smother normal behavior in our children who it seems are no longer allowed to be disciplined or made to obey at certain times. People today can’t seem to fathom the thought that there is any pain that just might go away on its own. The pendulum has swung from a time when pain was used as a warning sign that something was wrong with our bodies and we would try and fix that problem. Now we seem to get a twinge and want to drug ourselves to the max.
    The medical profession to some extent aids and abets Pharma. Talk to almost anyone leaving a hospital after any surgery and you will see that they are giving prescriptions for percocets or other pain meds. Even if they don’t need or want them.
    There are hundreds of people that have got into the fine art of Doctor shopping. They have no problems it seems in traveling hundreds of miles to see several Dr. feel goods. They network with their friends and know the symptoms most likely to elicit the prescriptions they seek. They know the pharmacies that are least likely to question these prescriptions or to not study them closely to see if they have been modified to greatly increase the number or dosages.
    Maybe we could put some constructive legislation to make it mandatory to show picture ID before receiving prescriptions for pain medications. These ID’s could be scanned and shared with a central computer to help catch those who are abusing the system.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZSBAAXFEXTIBDSRA5X3FA6TSG4 jersey

    HOw about if we revert to the old stuff that was just as effective. This stuff is killing maine.

  • Anonymous

    Wow, and here I am coping with an aspirin or two for pain. I find it amusing when patients can’t use the perks and vikes, but the one that starts with an “O” only works. And I guess ibuprofen, aspirin, tylenol, motrin, naproxyn – none of these work either. It’s kind of like the patients who come into the office stating they are suffering from that “f” word. They dont’ know what it is, but they know that doctors will prescribe good drugs for that phantom pain that no one seems to know where it’s coming from. If you’re in pain, it’s coming from somewhere, people. And my hats are off to the patients who come into the office, staggering and crying and dragging into the office, and then they are at the Hannaford shortly later, literally running out of the pharmacy, RX in hand. Brav0 – you fooled everyone.

  • Anonymous

    Obviously a central computer controlled by the central government

  • Anonymous

    Well we could have a central computer controlled by big Pharma;)

  • Anonymous

    They now can see in scans of the brain that the pain center of someone with F is smaller and less active than someone without it. Also there is an access amount of “P” substance in the spinal fluid which amplifies pain signals. People with F often have a sleep disorder which does not put them into REM sleep long enough each night. So the muscles, tendons and ligaments don’t get the proper repair time each night. People with f often have underactive thyroids which causes fatigue. Most people with F also have an overactive bladder, irritable bowel syndrome and sinus/nasal problems.

    All of those things aren’t phantom symptoms. They are common with hundreds of thousands of people with this syndrome. Most people with chronic F pain surely wish that they could find the source of their pain and fix it.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EJJUT7MFX372EPFZ4HBCI3FHSI Gina

    I cant take any kind of anti inflammatory drug since I almost bled to death in January ’10 but I can take tylenol to ALMOST take the edge off the constant muscle and nerve pain. Do I ask for anything stronger? NO, do i need anything stronger? NO I do look for alternatives-stretches, walks, shots in the nerves with lidocaine and a small amount of cortizone hot baths, cold packs.. there are many herbal remedies to help and mind relaxing techniques. but the truth is, some of us live with pain-it sucks, but for me, Im not dying so I will live to the best of my ability..without mind altering drugs that cause addiction. Living with constant pain sucks, but dying in addiction is even worse.

  • http://www.infowars.com Pat Riote

    Can we legalize marijuana yet? Or at the very least, implore doctors to start prescribing marijuana since it isn’t chemically addictive.

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