Oxycontin: creating brand loyalty the Big Pharma way

From time to time we all need to use an analgesic. Maybe it’s aspirin or paracetamol for a headache. Or an opiate administered in a hospital for a few days only after surgery. Or a low dosage codeine preparation for a particularly painful wound or fracture. And just occasionally, we might need something stronger. For, say, severe and unrelenting lower back pain that won’t let you sleep. There’s a good chance that for something like this your doctor will prescribe you Oxycontin.

Oxycontin is a brand name for oxycodone, a synthetic opiate which as been around for about fifteen years. You may know it as Percodan or Tylox. As an opiate, it’s closely related to morphine and heroin. This isn’t a family you want to get to know too well.

Oxycontin is remarkably effective as an analgesic. There are kinds of severe pain which it relieves better than anything else. Like many new and patented drugs, it was prescribed copiously for the first ten years of its use. And then the fallout began.

The problem is that, once you’ve taken Oxycontin for a while, you’re going to miss it when it’s gone. In fact some people may miss it so much that they’ll do just about anything to get it. That anything may not involve robbing banks or pulling off a heist on a pharmaceutical warehouse, but it may mean hooking up with a few “pill ladies”, elderly women with a bathroom cabinet full of this powerful analgesic and the need to earn a few bucks to supplement their pension. So you’ll cultivate a few of these to secure your supply once your doctor has slammed his prescription pad shut on you.

Hooking up with a pill lady will probably bring you into contact with a whole new strata of society. Because many of their customers are hardened junkies. Soon you may find yourself hanging around with them, joining up to “score” together. And it won’t be long after that before you’re scoring more than just your oxy.

That’s the problem with opiates. We’re all aware of how hard it is for a heroin addict to quit. How they’re never really recovered from their addiction, only in remission. And that sooner or later, the horse will gallop into their lives again. It’s not much different with addiction to any morphine derivative. Or a synthetic analogue, like Oxycontin.

How do you avoid this desperate fate. The obvious answer is not to start taking this insidious opiate in the first place. But that’s easier said than done: when you’re writhing in pain from a severe fracture or excruciating lower back pain, are you really going to say “no thanks” to your doctor when he tells you that Oxycontin will take that pain away. And he’s not going to hesitate to suggest it. After all, he wants to stop you screaming, too.

So the problem becomes how to stop once you start. First, as with any medication, don’t take Oxycontin any longer than is absolutely necessary. And if absolutely necessary has lasted a long time, begin by tapering off your dose as soon as the pain begins to diminish. This will help avoid the withdrawal symptoms that will propel you, drooling and shivering, in search of the nearest pill lady.