ACTUALITÉ / NEWS
“Hillbilly heroin” replacement raises new problems
gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca Eastern Ontario
this way. OxyNEO is designed so that the tablet is difficult, if not impossible, to crush. Attempts to melt it or dissolve it for injec- tionwill create a sticky gel instead. Addicts used to Oxycontin are already posting reports on the Internet about their attempts and failures at trying to get the same rush from OxyNEO. Several years ago a regional task force was created in Eastern Ontario to address the issue of Oxycontin use and abuse. The arrival of OxyNEO may not mean the task force’s job is finished. Dr. Roumeliotis, who is one of the EOHU’s representatives on the task force, noted that one of the group’s goals was stricter controls on prescriptions for either Oxycontin or other similar opiates to deal with one tactic that both addicts and pushers use to create stockpiles. They would get a prescription for Oxycontin and then take it around to several different drugstores to fill. Several people might even make use of a single prescription order. “Now it (prescription orders) is more difficult,” Dr. Roumeliotis said. New provincial health ministry rules require proper identification be shown when a prescription is presented for Oxycontin or other opioid drugs. Doctors are also more aware now of the potential for abuse and are more careful with their Oxycontin prescriptions. But Dr. Roumeliotis noted a new problem may arise as OxyNEO replaces Oxycontin on the shelves and access to their “hillbilly heroin” supply becomes more and more limited for addicts. Methadone programs exist to help heroin addicts wean themselves off that drug but nothing exists yet to help Oxycontin addicts. “There is some concern about that,” Dr. Roumeliotis said, adding that will be one of the main topics for discussion during the next meeting of the Oxycontin task force at the end of March. One snowmobiler has learned a lesson this season from the police about alcohol. It doesn’t mix well with his winter sport. OPP have been paying particular atten- tion to local snowmobile trails in Prescott Countyoverthepastfewweekendsleading up to the thaw. The was on the riding areas around East Hawkesbury and in Cham- plain and Alfred-Plantagenet Townships. The last weekend of February police got a call from Treadwell about an early-riser snowmobiler riding around on Conces- sion 1 at 3 a.m. A police patrol intercepted the rider, a 40-year-old Treadwell man, and suspected from his behaviour that he might have been drinking. The man refused a request for a breath sample so police charged him under the Criminal Code for failing to provide a breathalyser sample when asked. They then had the snowmobile towed away and gave the rider an order to appear in provin- cial court in L’Orignal on March 14. TheOPPremindsnowmobilersthatthey are subject to the same rules under the Criminal Code concerning alcohol and motor vehicles as anyone driving a car or truck. The same penalties, including fines, licence suspension and possible jail time, also apply. Police spent several weeks on snowmobile patrols. They have filed 13 speeding charges and two for failure to have a trail pass. There are three charges regarding number plates and three for riding without insurance. No booze allowed on the snowmobile trails vision@eap.on.ca Treadwell
like morphine, codeine, heroin and methadone. It is the same opiod that is in Percocet, Oxycocet, and Endocet but the oxycodone in those medications is combined with acetaminophen, which prevents patients from taking too many of the pills because of the sick feeling they experience. When taken as prescribed Oxycontin is safe because the oxycodone is released slowly into the bloodstream as it dissolves. But the oxycodone is not combined with acetaminophen so if Oxycontin is crushed into a power or melted into a liquid and then swallowed then all the oxycodone goes into the bloodstream at once. Overdosing is easy when taking Oxycontin
“And I’m not the only one with the concern,” Dr. Roumeliotis said during a phone interview. The new drug is meant to replace Oxycontin as an easy-to-use time-release prescription pain medication so that peo- ple in chronic pain do not have to take a lot of pills. Another reason for OxyNEO’s arrival on prescription shelves is that Oxycontin has become very popular with drug addicts and a big part of organized crime’s drug supply business. Its street name is “hillbilly heroin” because it is cheap and provides an intense and sudden rush when it is crushed and swallowed. The active ingredient in Oxycontin is oxycodone, an opioid drug
It will be harder to get hold of without a proper doctor’s note and not so easy to use and abuse as the prescription pain killer it is designed to replace. But OxyNEO may not be the quick-fix to the Oxycontin epidemic of addiction that creates headaches for health officials and police in this region and elsewhere. The chief medical officer for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit is pleased to see OxyNEO become available to doctors with patients in chronic constant pain. But Dr. Paul Roumeliotis foresees a potential problem as OxyNEO replaces Oxycontin on prescription drug counter shelves.
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