Reformulation of Oxycontin Among Other Measures Fuels Heroin Epidemic, Says Study
Opioid addiction has long been a serious concern in the United States. The epidemic has engulfed numerous lives in the country, apart from causing innumerable health issues such as long-term irreversible imbalances in the hormonal and neuronal systems, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). In order to mitigate the prevailing crisis of opioid abuse, a privately held pharmaceutical company reformulated the powerful painkiller OxyContin in 2010, which made the drug difficult to be misused or abused.
Apparently, the powerful painkiller drug came into existence way back in1996 and provided immediate 12-hour relief to patients suffering from severe pain. However, soon, it was found that people using OxyContin eventually got hooked onto it since it could be easily abused by crushing the pills, chewing, snorting or even injecting. This led the manufacturing company to plead guilty to misleading the consumers, for which it had to pay $600 million in fines, in 2007.
Consequently, the company released a new formulation of the drug in 2010, which greatly reduced the possibility for abuse as people faced difficulty in crushing or dissolving the pills. Apparently, this formulation was the first drug to be given an “abuse-deterrent” designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Interestingly, the new reformulated OxyContin, along with a number of other measures such as the Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs), to track the sale of prescription painkillers, “pill mill” law, etc., helped curb the abuse of prescription drugs. However, what was thought to be a great step toward staving off the growing epidemic of prescription drug overdose came with a major fallout of a subsequent heroin epidemic that currently kills more number of people than the combination of most of the prescription drugs.
OxyContin misuse linked with increasing heroin deaths
According to a recent working paper, published in January 2017 by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the reformulated Oxycontin was a major contributor in shifting former opioid users to heroin. The authors observed that this accounted for “as much as 80 percent of the three-fold increase in heroin mortality since 2010.”
It was observed that there was no correlation between OxyContin abuse and heroin mortality before 2010. “States with the highest initial rates of OxyContin misuse experienced the largest increases in heroin deaths. Results show that this differential increase in heroin deaths began precisely in the year following reformulation,” said the authors.
Surprisingly, disruptions in the supply of drugs raised the possibility of an increased use of substitute drugs, such as heroin.
Curbing demand for illicit drugs may reduce addiction
Cutting the supply of abused drugs, rather than reducing the demand, is not an effective strategy to deal with the ever-increasing drug problem. However, it is not an inefficient one. That is why the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), continues to approve the development of abuse-deterrent opioids, which can go a long way in reducing the number of opioid overdose deaths in the country. Evidently, the presence of substitute drugs for opioid painkillers, such as heroin, will always be a deterrent on the path of curbing overdose deaths.
More access to medicine-based treatments can have a big impact in treating cases of substance abuse, including opioid addiction. However, these can be more effective when used simultaneously with other treatment methods, such as counseling and support groups.
If you or know someone you know is addicted to some form of the drug, get in touch with the California Drug Addiction Helpline to know about the best inpatient drug treatment centers in California. The representatives available at our 24/7 helpline number 855–980–1946 will assist you to get the required details about the outpatient drug treatment centers in California.
