OxyContin, the trade name product for an opioid painkiller patented by Purdue Pharma L.P. in 1996, is from the generic narcotic oxycodone hydrochloride.  In 1995 OxyContin was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and first introduced to the U.S. market in 1996.  By 2001, OxyContin was the best-selling non generic narcotic pain reliever in the U.S.; in 2002, more than 7.2 million prescriptions were written for it, for total sales of $1.5 billion.  This severely effective pain management tool allows cancer patients and the terminally ill feel relief from chronic and defiant pain.  OxyContin has time-release properties that allow patients up to 12 hours of relief, unlike percocet or other oxycodone products that require repeat dosages every four to six hours.

According to the federal Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 50 million people in the United States are partly or totally afflicted by pain. Those who are prescribed OxyContin are often able to return to normal life functioning with few or no side effects.  Unfortunately, some become physically dependent and addicted to the strong potency and effectiveness of this medication that has also attracted illicit drug users to the pills resulting in a range of reported health complications including addiction, miscarriages for pregnant women undergoing withdrawal, and death.

Oxycodone usage tips

When you take OxyContin without a prescription or not as prescribed, you could:

   * Overdose:  Signs of an overdose include slow or difficult breathing, and extreme drowsiness. The risks of an overdose will increase if you take OxyContin with other opioids, alcohol or tranquillizers.  An overdose of OxyContin can lead to brain damage or death.

  * Get Hooked:  If you take OxyContin regularly or to get high, before long it will give you less and less relief.  And when you stop taking it, you go into withdrawal and feel dreadful.  It will come to a point where your body will always require the drug. How long it takes to reach this point varies from person to person, but it can be quick.

* Feel Lousy:  Apart from dreadful withdrawal sickness, taking OxyContin can have side-effects such as constipation, sexual problems, swelling, nausea, sweating, itching and sleepiness.

* Get Infected:  Injecting OxyContin has the same risks as injecting heroin.  Those who share needles can result in HIV, hepatitis and other life-threatening infections, or they can infect other people.

* Get Busted:  Possessing someone else’s OxyContin is a crime – you increase chance arrest, conviction and a criminal record.

* Make Things Worse:  Taking OxyContin to self-medicate for physical pain or to numb emotions only adds to your problems.  OxyContin seems to make things better at first, but once you’re hooked on it, your life will be much worse.  Covering up what you’re feeling with OxyContin only stops you from dealing with your problems, and gets in your way of finding help when you need it.

Oxycodone death in the U.S.

According to a survey of the U.S. coroners and medical examiners, OxyCodone has contributed or caused at least 92 deaths during the year of 2001, in eight of Philadelphia’s counties.

In South New Jersey, 15 people died in 2000 and 24 in 2001 across only the counties of Burlington, Camden and Gloucester.

The manufacturing of OxyContin is increasing. Sales of OxyContin, first marketed in 1996, hit $1.2 billion last year.

The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration reported that OxyContin may have played a role in 464 deaths across the U.S in 2000 to 2001.

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