Oxycontin Gets a Makeover Making it Harder to Abuse

Oxycontin, which is also called, "Hillbilly heroin," as one of the drugs street names, has changed making it harder to abuse this potent medication. Up until a few months ago, drug abusers could crush the Oxycontin pill, dissolve it in water and inject this medication like they do the drug heroin. The makers of Oxycontin have added a feature to this medication so this way of abusing the drug is no longer possible, according to the literature put out by the Purdue Drug Company.

According to Prudue, the company that makes the brand name Oxycontin, the abuse of this drug has prompted them to take some safeguards against its misuse.

Manufactured since 1996, Oxycontin is the drug oxycodone, but it was created to deliver a steady dose of the medication over a long period of time. One dose is designed to last up to 12 hours. The pill slowly dissolves delivering the oxycodone to your system a little bit at a time.

The pills, which comes in strengths of 10 mg, 15 mg, 20 mg, 30 mg, 40 mg, 60 mg, and 80 mg is prescribed by your doctor in a dose that he feels is appropriate for your pain level. It is a pill that is prescribed mostly for severe chronic pain. This is most likely not a pill that would be prescribed for short periods of time or for low or moderate pain.

Before making the pills harder, the pills could be crushed into a powder form and that powder would dissolve in water rendering the drug user to be able to inject the solution. Now the pill is manufactured in a new way, making it harder to crush it into powder form. The coating, as well as the entire pill itself is hard, making it harder to cut or crush. Even if the pill is crushed, it is not the powder form it once was. Then when the water is added and the substance is heated, which is part of the procedure the drug abusers use, it turns to a gel. This renders the drug useless for injecting.

Purdue has sent out pamphlets to the patients prescribed this drug stating that the pill has not changed in any way other than the safeguard a compound used to make the pill hard to crush. The same medication is in each pill and the same manufacturer is making this medication. There is no difference at all for the person taking this pill as it was intended, which is ingested in whole pill form.

Oxycontin has been a very controversial pill since the day it came on the market. When used for what it is prescribed for, it has been called "a miracle pain reliever." People who are in chronic severe pain, can get much relief from this medication. Unfortunately, it is the people who are not prescribed the pills or who are using them in a way they weren't intended to be used that this medication has become dangerous, and fatal at times.

A Percocet is a pain medicationl, which is a traditional pain killer given every 4 to 6 hours to relieve pain. This is a narcotic medication that contains oxycodone, the same medication that Oxycontin contains, it also contains Tylenol. This was one of the most common pain relievers used for moderate to sever pain for decades. A Percocet is usually prescribed in a 5 mg dose. A 40 mg Oxycontin pill has the equivalent of 8 Percocets in it, but the 40 mgs dissolve over a much longer period of time. It is the same as getting a constant dose of Percocet into your system, which manages the pain better than traditional pain killers that you take every 4-6 hours.

The Oxycontin pill was devised to eliminate the peaks and valleys that someone taking a pain pill such as Percocet every 4 hours would experience. The traditional pill, such as Percocet, would deliver the 5 mgs of medication and it would peak and then it would slowly wear off. The creation of the Oxycontin pill fixed that. This steady dose does not provide the peaks and valleys of the up and down pain relief. It offers a more even way to provide the pain relief than taking a pill every 4 - 6 hours, in which the pain relief wears off in some cases before the 4 or 6 hours is up.

The dangers of this pill are vast if it gets into the wrong hands or is taken in a way that is not prescribed. An Oxycontin pill is tiny, most people who have never taken one of these pills could not possibly realize the strength of the pill because of its tiny appearance. Because it is so small and does not deliver the medication all at once like a traditional pain pill of Percocet, people do not realize its potency. Oxycontin also does not kick in as quick as some of the more traditional narcotic pain killers.

Someone might take one Oxycontin and feel like it is not doing anything at first. It may not kick in as quick or as strong as a traditional narcotic pain killer, such as Percocet does at first. This coupled with its size, which is deceiving about the amount of medication it contains, is how many overdoses occur. Someone may take another pill and when both pills kick in this could act as an overdose of this drug for this person, especially if it is one of the higher mg pills. This could cause a fatal overdose depending on the strength of the Oxycontin pill.

The Oxycontin pill can make the difference in the quality of life for a chronic pain sufferer, this is what the pill was created to do. It can also be dangerous in the wrong hands.

The makers of the pill have done the responsible thing and reformulated the pill making it harder to crush and by rendering it a gel if it is dissolved in water and heated. The intravenous user cannot use this medication to "shoot up" any more. This was another delivery method that was also causing over doses.

The Oxycontin pill cannot be cut in anyway, according to the Purdue manufacturers. Cutting the pill in half threatens the delivery system of the pill rendering it no longer dissolving over time. An Oxycontin that has been cut can change the delivery the medication, having it dissolve in your system all at once, causing an overdose.

The new pill has been in the pharmacies for a few months and it does not look any different than the old version. Instead of the old marks of "OC", it now has an "OP" in its place.

Reference: Purdue Laboratories hard copy, Blogging Stocks