OxyContin addiction continues to be a significant drug problem in the United States.  Here are eight things everyone should know about this powerful prescription painkiller.

1. OxyContin is prescribed by doctors only for their patients who are suffering from high levels of pain as a result of illness, injury or surgery.

2. OxyContin is a time-release drug, meaning that it should only be taken orally when prescribed by a doctor thus allowing the active ingredients to be released into the bloodstream over time.

3. OxyContin is VERY dangerous when misued.  Individuals who snort or inject OxyContin are releasing all of the active ingredients at once, which can lead to overdose.

4. OxyContin Addiction is very similar to Heroin Addiction given the opiate nature of both drugs and the highly addictive qualities found in each.

5. Individuals who enter OxyContin rehab must undergo drug detox before beginning the program.  During detox, the toxins found in OxyContin are given a chance to leave the body.

6. Counseling plays a very important role in the treatment of treatment of OxyContin Addiction.  Individuals in OxyContin rehab will likely take part in both individual and group counseling.

7. Just because OxyContin is a doctor-prescribed medication does not make it safe.  There is just as high a risk of overdose using OxyContin as for “street drugs” if abused or taken incorrectly.

8. Young people find OxyContin and other prescription medications at home.  The medicine cabinets of friends and family members provide a ready source for dangerous prescription drugs.  Adults are urged to throw away old prescription medications or keep current prescriptions under lock and key.

If you or someone you know is addicted to OxyContin, there are drug rehab programs that can help!  Talk to an addiction treatment center in your area for more information.

More and more young people are using prescription painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin as a recreational drug.  They use these painkillers for their euphoric effects and obtain them by any all means necessary.  

The problem is that buying prescription medications online, or from a drug dealer can get expensive.  Obtaining medication on the black market can cost several dollars a pill, which adds up fast when the individual develops a tolerance to the drug and must begin to take more and more of them in order to obtain the desired effect.

What’s most frightening about this trend is that when young people run out of money and pills, they turn to a similar drug, priced well within their budget - heroin.

Many people do not realize that heroin provides an effect very similar to Vicodin and other doctor-prescribed painkillers.  Once addicts learn about the similarities, they will begin taking heroin in order to get their “fix.”

This is dangerous for several reasons:

• Heroin can come to the user in stronger-than-expected or contaminated doses which may lead to overdose and even death.
• Heroin, when taken using a needle can expose the individual to a variety of deadly diseases such as HIV, AIDS or Hepatitis.
• Heroin carries with it a social stigma that carries many young people away from their family and friends and into a downward spiral that can destroy what should be the happiest years of their life.

For all these reasons, plus myriad more, contact a drug rehab facility in your area if you are taking prescription painkillers and cannot stop.

Now that some time has passed since the media began its focus on OxyContin Addiction, several studies have been performed that may indicate that concerns about the drug were overblown.

OxyContin

Granted, OxyContin is still considered an addictive, highly dangerous drug if used improperly, but when taken as directed, the chance of “accidental addiction” would appear to be fairly rare.

Consider the following reporting from STATS, a non-partisan organization:

The consensus of all of these sources was, broadly, that Purdue had knowingly pushed a dangerously addictive product, and that thousands of people - most famously Rush Limbaugh - had become accidental addicts and hundreds had died, often through careless prescribing by doctors. As Geraldo Rivera raged on Fox news, Purdue’s “corporate vultures”

“…are the most insidious drug pushers, forcing their addictive junk on millions of unsuspecting victims, with the same disregard for their health and wellbeing as any demon doper.”

There was only one problem with all of this: the consensus, the moral outrage, the muck-raking investigative journalism wasn’t supported by reliable evidence.

STATS goes on to site the American Journal of Psychiatry, that studies 27,000 drug addicts across the United States and found that only a small number became accidentally addicted to OxyContin.

This report, however, should do NOTHING to undercut the importance of OxyContin rehab treatment for those who take the drug in any manner other than how it was intended.  If an individual snorts or injects OxyContin they are getting all of the active ingredients at once (instead of time-released) which can lead to addiction and overdose.