OxyContin Drug Abuse in Toronto, Ontario

OxyContin drug abuse in Toronto is alarming. There is no one in Toronto not touched in some way by the damage and harm caused by abuse of this prescription narcotic. In March 2011, the Montreal Gazette, reports that there are more deaths from OxyContin abuse in North America than from HIV. A study published in the Canadian Family Physician has found, in March 2011, that many doctors are overprescribing OxyContin with responsibility ascribed to influence by the drug manufacturer, Purdue Pharma.

Tragically, researchers at St Michaels and Institute for Clinical Evaluation Sciences, both situated in Toronto, have discovered that the doctors who hand out the most prescriptions have the highest number of narcotic related patient deaths – with some doctors writing as many as 55 times the narcotic prescriptions compared with other doctors.

The Montreal Gazette also cites a report of 2009 by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario – a report that has implications for all potential users of prescription narcotics, such as OxyContin, who trustingly believe prescription narcotics to be safe.

• Fact 1 – opioid related deaths in Ontario increased 49% between 2002 & 2006,
• Fact 2 – deaths linked to oxycodone ( found in OxyContin ), in Ontario, increased 240% between
  2002 & 2006.

These statistics are frightening and it takes a physician of the standing and caliber of Dr Phillip Berger, of St Michaels to come out straight and say it. Berger has told the Postmedia News that the “unethical and unbelievably aggressive marketing” tactics of the pharmaceutical companies are “unfairly influencing doctors”, who by and large lack specific knowledge and training in the prescription narcotic field.

However, it is not only doctors who need to act more responsibly when making OC more available to potential illicit users. Parents expose their children to the risk of accidental over dose and death when they casually leave their prescription narcotics around in the home.

Dangerous drugs in hospitals are normally double locked, and drug administration checked against – right drug, right person, right dose, right time, right route, and signed off by two med competent people. Only people fully trained in dangerous drug administration should deliver Oxy.

OxyContin drug abuse in Toronto effectively starts with the issuing of Oxy on prescription, making it accessible to abuse and to pharmacy robbery, available to people who don’t comprehend how dangerously addictive it is.

It falls to the task of the media to bring drug awareness into the public domain. Informed opinions such as those of Dr Philip Burger, are reduced to media fodder when met with stone wall silence from the manufacturer, and lack of immediate action by Ontario government.

Postmedia reports that the Ontario Department of Health has plans in place to better educate doctors. However it would appear that a sense of urgency about this program is completely lacking – meanwhile people taking OxyContin, on prescription, are getting addicted, and dying.

It is good to hear that the University of Toronto has now revised the curriculum of its pain management course so that it is no longer a platform for Purdue. However, pain management courses need to include and explore further the issue of drug use at all, something unlikely to happen, under the current regime.

People in Toronto seeking complete release from the pain of OxyContin addiction can contact Narconon Trois Rivieres, Quebec, for effective drug free detox and full addiction recovery.

For more information about the OxyContin addiction treatment program offered by Narconon Trois-Rivieres, please call 1-877-782-7409.



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