Oxycontin Addiction is Killing Ontario
Oxycontin Killing Ontario
If you or someone you know is abusing Oxycontin and need help, our addiction counsellor can answer all your questions and guide you to find the best treatment options available for that type of addiction.
Oxycontin is a brand name for Oxycodone hydrochloride; it is a schedule II controlled substance and has risen to the third spot of Ontario’s most abused drugs just behind Pot and Alcohol. In fact, the prescription drug Oxycontin and those brand-related opiates use have increased in the last ten years by over 850%. It is a very vicious cycle; the truth is our medical physicians were just as guilty as those abusing the drug.
The way it worked was. First, you showed up to your family doctor or some private clinic with a legitimate complaint of pain in your shoulder. You have no memory of having strained it or hit it or got roughed upon it from some sport. You woke up, and there it was, this small ache that turned into chronic pain. The doctor tells you well, there is no swelling, and you had no recent impact, there could be some nerve damage of some type, now it’s a mystery. He says I will prescribe you some pain management pills to help until your X-ray appointment in three months. You get your prescription of Oxycontin and take it as prescribed. You have been prescribed three more doses over the next three months. You follow the dosage correctly when you get your X-ray, the doctors see no broken bones, not particular malfunction and tell you well there is nothing to handle.
He stops your prescription, and off you go. But now, after three months of using Oxycontin, your body and mind have become dependant on it, and you need it morning, day and night. That is one of the ways a person became addicted. The other is when it is sold as illicit drugs on the black market. Heroin and morphine can be expensive drugs and were for many years when you could not get heroin; the next best thing is Oxycodone. When it was found that you can get a similar effect from Oxy’s as you get from Heroin than this became the drug of choice, Oxy was even considered at one time the ‘poor man’s heroin.’
In recent years, prescription drugs have increased to such an extent that it has become more problematic than Cocaine and other illicit drugs. A report from the Toronto Star shows over $54 million worth of Oxycontin was prescribed in 2008. In 2009, one pill of Oxy could be bought for $4 at the pharmacy. The cost out in the street had risen to staggering heights of $40 and even $45 per pill. But as Oxycontin was more distributed, the price began to drop, and three years later, it was found at $5 and $10 for a 10mg pill and the price rises as the milligrams rise.
But all the above is unimportant; what is important is the thousands of Ontarians struggling with Oxycontin addiction. This drug is so addictive and hard for one’s health that often it requires a Medical Detox to withdraw from it, followed by a proper addiction treatment program.
