Purdue Pharma should have reformulated Ox圜ontin sooner, said Steven Tolman, a state senator in Massachusetts who led a commission that investigated Ox圜ontin abuse. Outside of Ox圜ontin, which comes in doses as high as 80 milligrams, the 30-milligram dose is the highest available for oxycodone, which is why addicts covet it. Addicts can still get high from swallowing the new Ox圜ontin pills, he said, but most prefer the immediate rush delivered by snorting or injecting the powder. Moore, who said he used to snort as many as 10 Ox圜ontin pills daily, was arrested in November for selling heroin and now lives at a halfway house in East Boston. “You don’t make any money selling the OPs,” said James Moore, 28, who said he stopped selling and snorting Ox圜ontin and moved on to heroin after the new version came out last year. Several recovering addicts in Massachusetts said an 80-milligram tablet of the reformulated version, called Ox圜ontin OP, costs about $40. The old Ox圜ontin sold for as much as $80 per 80-milligram pill. Prices vary, but 30-milligram oxycodone tablets generally sell on the street for $20 to $30 each, according to addicts and law enforcement officials. “But eventually people make that progression from the pills to what appears to be a more economical high, which is heroin,” Mr. Tamasi, president and chief executive of Gosnold on Cape Cod, a treatment center, said he had noticed that addicts switch initially to the Perc 30s. It has been blamed for waves of addiction that have ravaged certain regions of the country, and has been a factor in many overdose deaths. But after it was introduced in 1996, drug abusers quickly discovered that chewing an Ox圜ontin tablet - or crushing one and snorting the powder, or injecting it with a needle - produced an instant high as powerful as heroin. “It wasn’t anything I enjoyed.”Ī powerful narcotic meant for cancer patients and others with searing pain, Ox圜ontin is designed to slowly release its active ingredient, oxycodone, over 12 hours. Capece who entered a rehab program here last month. Other addicts have tried to defeat the new formula by freezing, baking or soaking the pills in solvents ranging from soda to acetone. Capece, 21, tried microwaving one of the new pills, then sniffing up the burnt remains. The reformulated pills are harder to crush, turning instead into a gummy substance that cannot be easily snorted, injected or chewed. Michael Capece had been snorting Ox圜ontin for five years when a new version of the drug, intended to deter such abuse, hit the market last summer.
0 kommentar(er)
