OxyContin Death Toll: Prescription Drug Abuse

Oxycontin addiction continues to be a problem requiring drug treatment, for those who are lucky enough to get it.  In recent months, Atlanta Recovery Center has seen an increase in older people who have become addicted to Oxycontin or other drugs with Oxycodone in them.

 Each one had been prescribed the drug by a doctor that they trusted and had gotten into such bad shape through drug addiction that their families brought them in for addiction treatment.

The company that manufactures and marketed the drug, Purdue Pharma, initially advertised the drug as having a much lower risk of addiction because of its time release nature, which in actual fact made it more dangerous. 

However, even before the drug was released some personnel in the company were aware that the pill could be chewed, snorted or injected delivering a very high dose of the drug all at one time.   This factor has been one of the elements in accidental overdoses.

Initial marketing, which minimized the addictive element of the pain killer Oxycontin, lured individuals in with its low risk of addiction hype.  The fact that Purdue Pharma pled guilty to criminal charges of misleading regulators, doctors and patients, did not change the fact that thousands had been prescribed the drug and many were already hopelessly drug addicted at the time of the verdict and still are.

Very quickly after its release a large spike in deaths attributed to the drug began to appear in the poorer regions of the country.  The Appalachian areas were especially hit hard and the drug earned the nickname “hillbilly heroin”.

Reportedly the six hundred million dollars that Purdue Pharma agreed to pay in damages barely scratches the surface of the harm that has been done to Oxycontin users.

In Massachusetts the state health care system reported 18,000 individuals were treated in emergency rooms for Oxycontin related overdoses in 2005. These hospital stays alone cost the state nearly $200 million.

The drug contains Oxycodone, which had been used for years in other medications.  However, the formulation used by Purdue Pharma, the company that marketed Oxycontin, contained much more of Oxycodone and in time-release form.

If we multiply the settlement by the number of states in America we get a number 16 times greater than the damages which Purdue has agreed to pay. And this is just the overdoses, the cost of substance abuse as a whole is a much greater figure.  

And with over a billion dollars in sales, it is unlikely that we will see Purdue Pharma pull the drug anytime soon without enough in fines to make it uncomfortable.

At least 467 billion dollars was spent in 2005 on drug addiction, by federal, state and local governments, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA).