Despite the makers of OxyContin saying they are doing everything they can to limit or try and prevent the abuse of their products, statistics show an exploding rate of addition to their pain killers. To make the medication harder for addicts to abuse or concentrate, the makers of the drug have released OxyNEO (details of the new medication are on our Facebook page).
Many of the Canadian provincial governments, including our own Ontario Government, are trying to curb abuse of OxyContin (OxyContin was easily crushable or mixed with liquid to be injected) and now OxyNEO by de-listing them, or saying they will not publicly fund the filling of those prescriptions. However, as this article in the Globe & Mail shows, many experts do not feel that this will really help:
John Burke, president of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, a non-profit organization and commander of a drug task force in Ohio, is concerned that the move to de-list OxyNEO could lead to a bigger black market for pills brought in from other jurisdictions.
But restricting one drug will make only a dent in the country’s opioid problem. There are several medications that can – and, in all likelihood, will – fill the void created by the de-listing of OxyContin and OxyNEO.
As you can see in this article, British Columbia is the most recent province to curb paying for OxyNEO in an attempt to curb abuse.