The Rise of OxyContin in Appalachia

As many familiar with the area may know, drug abuse has been on the rise in Appalachia. Typical drugs like heroin, marijuana, and cocaine are routinely abused in many areas. These drugs are illegal to sell, possess, or consume. However, a new drug is ravaging Appalachia, causing overdoses, deaths, and devastation in many counties. As the push for legalizing marijuana increase, and people have become smarter about other drugs of abuse, prescription painkillers have snuck up and taken a place among many of the more recognizable drugs of abuse. Synonymous with Appalachia is the stereotypes of coal mining, outdoorsman, lumberjacks, and manual labor. OxyContin, a popular prescription painkiller, has one of the highest overdose rates in the country (Morales, 2011). Many workers throughout Appalachia hold physically demanding jobs for long periods of time. Part of this is due to the poverty in the region. Workers must work wherever they can get paid, and don’t have the luxury of waiting for a nice, cozy office job to open up. This is also due to the lagging development in Appalachia. With less development, manual labor is relied upon more heavily than machines. This results in nagging injuries and chronic pain for many workers. With this, residents of the region were looking to doctors to help remedy their chronic pains and aches. Prescription drug abuse has risen sharply in Appalachia since 1999, with overdoses becoming somewhat of an epidemic. The seven Appalachian states of Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia make up more than one fifth of the entire country’s opiate-related deaths since 1999 (Mekouar, 2016). This is a shocking statistic that shows just how prevalent and on-the-rise prescription drug abuse has been. Drug abuse has run so rampant that people have come up with nicknames such as “hillbilly heroin” in reference to opiates, and “pillbillies” in reference to those addicted (King, 2014). OxyContin and other prescription drugs are highly addictive, and have been attributed to many overdoses and deaths throughout Appalachia over the last 20 years. These quick and sudden deaths can leave holes in families, and often leave children without parents to raise them. This drug addiction helps keep Appalachian residents chained in the cycled of poverty, making it extremely difficult to break the cycle and make a better life for themselves and their family. There are a few reasons why prescription drug abuse has become so rampant in Appalachia. First of all, the physically demanding jobs available in Appalachia broke people’s bodies down, forcing them to turn to painkillers to ease their pain and improve their quality of life. Pharmaceutical companies noticed this and began to produce to meet the increasing demand. Appalachian poverty and lack of higher education are also factors. The access to prescription painkillers, as well as the demand for them, produces an incentive for people to obtain and sell them to make some extra money, even if they don’t need them themselves. The lack of higher education is also a factor, with many in the region uneducated about the damage that prescription drugs and other drugs of abuse can do. Likely the biggest reason for the huge spike in addiction is due to the pharmaceutical companies themselves. Companies like Purdue Pharma have aggressively pushed their product, especially to doctors in Appalachia (Sodomick, 2014). The companies would push and persuade doctors to prescribe their product, even when it was not necessarily needed. Over the last few years, Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies have been hit with lawsuits pertaining to prescription painkillers. In 2007, Purdue Pharma had to pay $634.5 million in damages related to OxyContin (CNBC, 2007). Purdue claimed that OxyContin was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications that were available at the time, which was later found not to be true. The lawsuit alleged that Purdue was misleading in regards to the risk of addiction to OxyContin. U.S. Attorney John Brownlee claims that, “Purdue unleashed a highly abusable, addictive, and potentially dangerous drug on an unsuspecting and unknowing public” (Associated Press, 2010). Education and research about the drug was low, and not much was known. This is especially true in Appalachia, where many citizens lack higher education. The region already has a propensity for drug abuse and addiction, and Purdue further exposed them to unnecessary risk. Recently, in 2014, Purdue Pharma was sued by the state of Kentucky, seeking relief for damages relating to addiction to OxyContin (Ungar, 2014). Prescription painkillers, and OxyContin in particular, have done massive amounts of damage. Abuse rates are up across the country, and especially in Appalachia. Prescription drug overdoses now are responsible for more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined (King, 2014). Also per King, prescription drug overdoses kill more people per year than car accidents due. This is an alarming stat, and one that needs to be reversed quickly. Until local, state, and federal governments realize the problem and take action, prescription drug abuse will continue running rampant in Appalachia and all around the country. More must be done to combat this. Resources need to be poured into rehabilitation to make sure addicts don’t relapse. The public, as well as doctors, need to be educated on the effects of OxyContin. This will lower the amount of people who abuse without knowing the consequences. The government also needs to do a better job of regulating drug prescriptions and the drug market to quell the problems with OxyContin and prevent this from happening with another drug. Until the people, doctors, and government decide to make a change, things will remain the same, with families torn apart and people dying far too young.

Here is a link for a YouTube playlist containing videos about OxyContin and prescription drug abuse in Appalachia: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLayorCo53QiRgTMe2m4VImR9DxWV34TQ1

Citations

Associated Press. “Purdue Pharma, Execs to Pay $634.5 Million Fine in OxyContin Case.” CNBC, CNBC, 5 Aug. 2010, www.cnbc.com/id/18591525/.

King, Lisa. “OxyContin Continues to Devastate Appalachia.” Communities Digital News, Communities Digital News, 14 Mar. 2014, www.commdiginews.com/life/oxycontin-continues-to-devastate-appalachia-11986/.

Mekouar, Dora. “This Troubling Epidemic Is Killing People in Appalachia — All About America.” VOA, VOA News, 25 Jan. 2016, blogs.voanews.com/all-about-america/2016/01/25/this-troubling-epidemic-is-killing-people-in-appalachia/.

Morales, Andrea. “Prescription Drug Abuse in Appalachia.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Apr. 2011, www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/04/03/us/DRUGS/s/DRUGS-slide-EOTX.html.

Sodomick, Karen. “Fighting Addiction in Appalachia.” Addiction in Appalachia: A Problem Too Dire to Ignore, Phoenix House, 29 Apr. 2014, www.phoenixhouse.org/news-and-views/our-perspectives/addiction-in-appalachia/.

Ungar, Laura. “Lawsuit Seeks to Make Drugmaker Pay for OxyContin Abuse.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 29 Dec. 2014, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/29/kentucky-battles-purdue-pharma-in-court-over-oxycontin-abuse/20803459/.