The young man sits in front of Roberta McIntyre, his shoulders slumped and his hands restless.
He taps his toe and crosses his legs, his eyes searching the room for nothing in particular. Soon the story comes tumbling out, a story painfully common and intensely personal.
The plain white pill — usually just one to get started and then two to keep up and then many more to maintain the same high — just doesn’t cut it anymore.
OxyContin (generically, oxycodone) addiction starts out as an addict’s chase after the white pill, McIntyre said, but it often ends in a graduation to heroin use. The director of nursing at the Glenbeigh Hospital inpatient drug and alcohol treatment program, McIntyre said the new formulation of controlled-release OxyContin, which will prevent the white pills from being cut, broken, chewed, crushed or dissolved, may prevent the intravenous injection or “pushing” of the narcotic.
“But it could easily send OxyContin addicts looking for heroin,” she said. “OxyContin and heroin are like a hand and a glove. I have never had an OxyContin addict who hasn’t supplemented their addiction with heroin when the pills just weren’t available.”
OxyContin is a slow-release narcotic painkiller manufactured by Purdue Pharma LP.
Abusers usually crush the medicine and then snort or inject it, bringing a quick “heroin-like” high, McIntyre said.
Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Sgt. James Kemmerle said local law enforcement will have to deal with a jump in heroin-related cases, from trafficking and sales to abuse and overdoses.
The new tamper-proof OxyContin pill, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, contains a newly designed polymer that will surround the active ingredient, making the pill more difficult to crush. Once crushed, the pill fragments can’t be heated, or the powder will turn into a gel.
“Addicts won’t be able to inject it,” Kemmerle said. “Heroin will become more easily usable by comparison.”
OxyContin and heroin overdoses weigh on McIntyre’s mind. Glenbeigh admits only adults, but the problem plagues teenagers, as well.
“OxyContin and heroin are nightmares, just nightmares,” she said. “We see adults as young as 18 years old, and many of our patients are in the early 20s, but the addiction isn’t starting at 18 or 20 years old. These people are (injecting) OxyContin and heroin as young as 14 years old. The number of young people who are dying from intravenous heroin use is outrageous.”
Kemmerle said drug use and crime go hand in hand.
“We are looking at a real jump in crime as well, as addicts become desperate for a drug they can’t get anymore,” he said. “Right now, I would say heroin and OxyContin are about 50/50 in abuse in the region. The shift back to a more heroin-saturated drug market is, unfortunately, around the corner.”
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