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Sounds Like: oxy.CON.tin
Classification: Opioid Analgesic
Controlled Substance Act Schedule: II
Other names for OxyContin
Oxycontin is a prescription opioid drug used to manage severe pain. Oxycontin is known as oxycodone in its generic form. The drug was introduced in 1996 to the market as a successor to Purdue Pharma’s highly successful MS Contin. The subject of controversy regarding pharmaceutical regulation and extra-medical drug use, Oxycontin has become one heavily-scrutinized substance.
Oxycontin can be counteracted with an opioid antagonist that binds to opioid receptors in the brain and blocks opioid uptake. Drugs like naltrexone and naloxone are some of the most effective opioid antagonist drugs on the market today. When taken orally (the default route of administration), the drug is as effective as 1.5 times the strength of morphine.
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Oxycontin is intended for use when treating extreme pain when NSAIDs or steroid anti-inflammatory drugs don’t work. Patients will be prescribed a prescription in pill form that’s taken orally at directed intervals. Since oxycodone is a controlled substance, it’s only legal when given a prescription.
Oxycontin is primarily taken in pill form. When used non-medically, users may scrape off the coating and crush up the oxycodone beneath it to snort or use in an alternative way. Since the introduction of the “abuse-proof” oxycodone pill, users have taken to buying heroin or fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills on the street.
Since oxycodone pills are an anesthetic opioid that gives users a better-than-average sense of self and feeling, they can become extremely addicting very fast. There’s been evidence presented to the press and regulatory agencies that the pill can even be addicting when taken as directed. Side effects may include:
Oxycontin is an opioid drug that exhibits addiction in much the same way as heroin or other opioids. Symptoms of opioid withdrawal may include:
In 2008, Heath Ledger died from a combination of several drugs, one of which was oxycodone.
Tom Petty, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, accidentally overdosed on a combination of fentanyl and oxycodone in 2017.