Five Myths About OxyContin
1. OxyContin is slow release.
The new buffered OxyNeo approachs a slow release formulation, but the OxyContin product marketed between 1996 and 2010 in the USA, and continuing in Canada, relies on misleading information, that OxyContin lasts for 12 hours. Users are frequently suffering opioid withdrawal within twelve hours of ingestion.
2. OxyContin is safe, and not addictive when used as prescribed.
OxyContin is addictive when used as prescribed. OxyContin taken strictly as prescribed has caused many overdose deaths.
OxyContin is and has always been as addictive as heroin, codeine, methadone or morphine. Most OxyContin addiction deaths are due to a single drug, not polydrug use as is often claimed. For most OxyContin addiction deaths the person has received a prescription for the medication from a doctor, within the preceding month.
3. Prescription opiates, such as OxyContin are not the same as street drugs.
OxyContin is virtually identical to heroin. In fact all opioid drugs have similar pain relieving capacity, similar side effects, and the same potential for addiction, and overdose when used by vulnerable people.
All opioid drugs are synthetic, drugs that were developed originally by medical research teams, and diverted to the illicit drug market. If not for medical research into the use of synthetic drugs as medications, it is highly improbable that there would be the extreme toxicity and variety of illicit drugs that there is in the world today. Heroin was originally a prescription drug, used to alleviate pain.
4. Opioid drugs such as OxyContin are essential for pain relief.
What is not widely acknowledged, given public support or recognition, particularly by government funding, is the wide range of alternative pain therapies that are non- invasive and do not involve drug use. Alternative treatments that can bring effective pain relief include herbal remedies, acupuncture, dietary modifications, mind body therapies, chiropractic healing, massage, reiki and “touch” therapies.
Drug manufacturers today promote the illusion that drugs are all that we have, for severe pain relief. All drug use is inherently toxic, and essentially works against nature, diminishing the natural ability of the body, to reduce pain and to heal itself.
5. I feel good on OxyContin – I don’t have problem.
It can feel good to feel emotionally free, unburdened by life’s ups and downs, however all drug use, particularly opioids, is a fugue from reality. People don’t get down to sorting their real issues out when using and getting increasingly involved with escapist drugs.
The only way to deal with life’s problems is to confront them with informed and confident intention to resolve, and get past them. Life is a choice that we make, to be active, constructive, effective. Using drugs for any purpose, both prescription or illicit is a depressive, destructive move that removes the incentive, the possibility of us leading a more healthy and happy life.
A brief history of the saga of OxyContin addiction is set out in a recent article that appears in the National Post. The sad fact is that for all the publicity that surrounds the OxyContin issue, the drug continues to be marketed and diverted to the illicit drug market.
When institutions such as CAMH in Canada, give “straight talk” to the community about drug use and addiction, it becomes clear that there is fundamental difference between the viewpoint of the traditional, medical community, and the drug free holistic view.
Although people are given authorative advice about which drugs are best, their efficacy and relevant warnings, rarely is drug information provided in the context that people would be, in every case, better off to find natural methods to achieve the same intended outcome and purpose.
Five myths about OxyContin that are commonly thought to be true, that in many ways contribute towards the widespread use and demand for Oxy and similar synthetic opioid drugs.
Drug education is based on the premise that drugs are a necessity to combat increasing levels of chronic pain, malady and malaise. If drug manufacturers had their way, we would all be taking a cocktail of drug medications, each and every day.
The most powerless individuals in our society are already in that position – the infants, young children, teens and the elderly, people with problems of mental illness, those with emotional problems, those in constant pain all go to system based healthcare centers, looking for advice, only to be medicated for their trouble, and offered no health advice.
Drug use and abuse is rampant because we want quick remedies for our distress, don’t want to deal with comprehensive solutions.
People today who don’t “have” a doctor, who are not on any kind of medication are a rare and increasingly endangered species. Surely it is worry when kids come home from school, enthusiastically inquiring of their mothers – Mum, what allergies have we got. A worry when kids are disappointed to find they have no allergies at all. A worry when children feel disappointed that they have nothing to medicate, when all their friends are on “something”.
Doctors take the view that lifestyle issues that cause and contribute to the vast majority of present day ailments, are not something that they want or need to become involved in.
Our chosen lifestyle, or accident, makes us ill and in pain. We present our symptoms to the doctor, get our ration of drugs, without any attempt to fix the causes of the disorder - drug medication is not what health care is about.
We choose to overlook the fact that drug supply is simply a business, and that public health care means ensuring that the health concerns of individuals never get to “rock the boat” in terms of maintaining good order in society, at least possible public expense.
