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OxyContin® information

What is OxyContin®?

OxyContin® is the brand name for a semisynthetic opioid analgesic containing the active ingredient oxycodone (also found in Percocet, Percodan, and Tylox). OxyContin is a legal narcotic that is available, by prescription, to treat severe chronic or long-lasting pain.

However, OxyContin® contains between 10 and 160 milligrams of oxycodone in a timed-release tablet. Painkillers such as Tylox contain 5 milligrams of oxycodone and often require repeated doses to bring about pain relief because they lack the timed-release formulation.

Street Names: OxyContin is also known as Oxy, O.C., OxyCotton, Oxy 80 (for the 80mg dose), or "killer".

What does OxyContin look like?

OxyContin most commonly exists in tablet form. These round pills come in 10mg, 20mg, 40mg, 80mg and 160mg dosages. OxyContin also comes in capsule or liquid form.

OxyContin Abuse

Because OxyContin is a controlled-release medication, when used correctly it provides extended relief of pain associated with cancer, back pain, or arthritis.

OxyContin abusers either crush the tablet and ingest or snort it or dilute it in water and inject it. Some abusers even chew it. Crushing or diluting the tablet disarms the timed-release action of the medication and causes a quick, powerful high. Eliminating the time-release factor allows for a quick and intense rush to the brain. Abusers have compared this feeling to the euphoria they experience when taking heroin. In fact, in some areas, the use of heroin is overshadowed by the abuse of OxyContin.

This practice can lead to overdosing on OxyContin's active ingredient, oxycodone, by releasing too much of the medication into the bloodstream too quickly. OxyContin is highly addictive -- so higher doses of the drug must be taken when a tolerance develops. Illicit users of the drug have risen drastically and steadily over the last few years.

OxyContin Abuse Differs From Abuse of Other Pain Prescriptions

Abuse of prescription pain medications is not new. Two primary factors, however, set OxyContin abuse apart from other prescription drug abuse. First, OxyContin is a powerful drug that contains a much larger amount of the active ingredient, oxycodone, than other prescription pain relievers. By crushing the tablet and either ingesting or snorting it, or by injecting diluted OxyContin, abusers feel the powerful effects of the opioid in a short time, rather than over a 12-hour span. Second, great profits are to be made in the illegal sale of OxyContin. A 40-milligram pill costs approximately $4 by prescription, yet it may sell for $20 to $40 on the street, depending on the area of the country in which the drug is sold.

Street Names for OxyContin

OxyContin is also known as Oxy, O.C., OxyCotton, Oxy 80 (for the 80mg dose) or "killer".

For help with drug abuse phone 1-800-893-7060.

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