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 Playful Hate
Transhuman Polyglot
Registered: 05/15/12
Posts: 1,040
Loc: 
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 OxyContin replaced by explosion of small-town heroin use 
#16730221 - 08/20/12 10:09 AM (8 months, 28 days ago) |
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OxyContin replaced by explosion of small-town heroin use
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1243530--oxycontin-replaced-by-explosion-of-small-town-heroin-use
The dire predictions have panned out: Heroin has filled the void.
Almost six months after OxyContin was replaced with a harder-to-abuse pill, police services and addiction counselors say heroin has made a dramatic appearance on community streets, fueling crime and causing a rise in overdoses.
In many Ontario towns and cities, the potent drug is now cheaper and easier to access than OxyContin. Heroin is also surfacing in communities that have rarely or never had to deal with the dangerous narcotic. And some of those turning to heroin — often to stave off the horrors of opioid withdrawal — appear to cross all age groups and social and economic backgrounds.
Frontline police officers and addictions staff say the sudden arrival of heroin coincides with shrinking street supplies of OxyContin — an unintended, though perhaps not unexpected, consequence of making it harder for people to get the prescription painkiller.
“We went from ‘hillbilly heroin,’ as oxys were referred to, to heroin proper,” said Murray Rodd, chief of the Peterborough Lakefield Community Police Service.
“It was a direct consequence of replacing the demand for OxyContin with actual heroin. And it happened in a very short period of time.”
On Wednesday, Peterborough police took part in a major drug raid across the GTA, during which investigators seized, among other things, large quantities of cocaine, marijuana and heroin with a combined street value of more than $430,000.
The seven-month investigation, called Project Kingfisher, was led by the Durham Region police guns and gangs enforcement unit. Of the 28 people arrested, 10 are Peterborough residents who together face a total of 60 charges.
Rodd said the number of charges and arrests linked to Peterborough residents “show the appetite and scope” of the heroin issue in the community.
Staff Sgt. Larry Charmley said Peterborough police — and those in the Durham force — were surprised by the amount of heroin coming into the Peterborough area.
“Until now, we never had a known heroin problem in Peterborough,” Charmley said.
“We pretty much expected this might happen, and now it’s verified.”
On March 1, Purdue Pharma replaced OxyContin with OxyNeo, a new formulation of the oxycodone-based medication that the manufacturer says is more difficult to crush and therefore less likely to be abused through injecting or snorting.
At the same time, Ontario delisted OxyNeo from the province’s drug benefit program, thereby tightening the rules under which it can be prescribed.
Both moves were made to curb the number of people who get addicted to OxyContin, a drug that is up to twice as strong as morphine.
OxyContin has fueled an addiction epidemic in Ontario. According to the province, each year between 300 and 400 people die from overdoses involving prescription opioids, primarily OxyContin.
Though the changes made earlier this year were generally welcomed as ways to prevent people from abusing the highly addictive drug, there were also worries that removing OxyContin from pharmacy shelves would create other problems.
People addicted to OxyContin could seek help when their supply ran out — which, while the ideal outcome, could stretch addiction and treatment programs beyond capacity, experts said.
Or users would turn to other, potentially more harmful drugs to satisfy their addiction. Police and addiction counselors pointed to heroin and fentanyl, another prescription opioid available as a skin patch, as prime replacements to OxyContin.
In Toronto, what some call the epicentre of the province’s illicit drug trade, OxyContin is reportedly still easily found on the street.
Lynne Raskin, director of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre, said in general the community hasn’t yet been affected by the discontinuation of OxyContin, and that reports suggest there has been no increase in the street costs of a pill.
She also said clients have reported that some people have found ways to abuse OxyNeo, that there is more heroin on Toronto streets and that it is “much cheaper and much more accessible.”
A spokesperson for the Toronto Police Service said officers in the drug squad have not noticed a spike in heroin use.
It seems smaller communities in southern Ontario are the first to see the fallout from discontinuing OxyContin.
“What we are seeing now is a dramatic and sudden appearance and increase in use of heroin,” said Det. Const. Michael Van Sickle, an officer in the vice branch of the Sarnia Police Service. “Six months ago, we were not hearing about heroin, nor were we seizing it.”
Addiction counsellors in Hamilton and Durham Region told the Star that more clients have reported using heroin in the six months since OxyNeo replaced OxyContin. (Though in Hamilton opioids also continue to trend upwards.)
And, according to news reports, police and addiction workers in London, Ont., say they have seen users gravitate towards heroin, crystal meth and hydromorphone, a prescription narcotic similar to morphine.
Christina Colacicco, an outreach counsellor at the John Howard Society of Durham Region, said that while some clients have sought methadone treatment after finding it hard to get OxyContin, others are clearly using heroin as the alternative drug to get their needed high.
This switch means she and her colleagues have needed to ramp up overdose training for their clients by educating them about warning signs — blue lips, heavy breathing — that signal a potentially fatal drug overdose.
“We have to go on the defence,” said Colacicco, who speaks with drug users at Project X-Change, a needle exchange program in the region.
Heroin comes with more risks than OxyContin because users do not know how much drug they are getting, or what substance has been used in the cutting process. Experts say the chance of overdose is much higher with heroin.
Debbie Bang, executive director of Womankind Addiction Services at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, said that prescription medications, such as OxyContin, are standardized and each pill provides an exact amount of drug.
“You ultimately know what’s in that pill you are taking, while heroin is highly dependent on who is selling it to you,” she said, adding that heroin could contain impurities that cause allergic reactions and is an unknown when it comes to purity.
“Is it purer than I’m used to, and therefore am I going to overdose? There is a whole unknown around that heroin product. And there’s the risk.”
Fentanyl — a drug that Sarnia police say has flooded the city’s drug trade — is also a health concern.
People who abuse fentanyl cut the patch into pieces, scrape off the potent drug and inject it. This can lead to overdoses because users are not able to judge the dose they are getting.
Ontario’s Ministry of Health has been monitoring the effects of discontinuing OxyContin since early March and is working with an Expert Working Group on Narcotic Addiction.
According to a ministry spokesperson, a weekly surveillance program that checks in with community addiction service organizations and needle exchange programs, via the Local Health Integration Networks and Public Health Units, has found “no significant changes in population health or health system utilization.”
However, the surveys have found that changes in drug use behaviours appear to be happening more quickly in northern and rural communities where supply of OxyContin is lower, and that some organizations have reported clients substituting heroin for the prescription painkiller.
The ministry is also monitoring opioid-related emergency department visits and hospital admissions and opioid-related deaths. This data is not yet publicly available.
Theodore Cicero, a professor of psychology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said he is not surprised to hear the anecdotal evidence that heroin is replacing OxyContin in Ontario communities.
He co-authored a study, published in July in the New England Journal of Medicine, that found fewer people injected and snorted OxyContin after the harder-to-abuse version of the drug went on the market. In the U.S., the switch happened in August 2010.
However, the research also showed the abuse-deterrent formula caused the study’s participants to turn to heroin, something Cicero said was an unanticipated outcome.
“We saw a doubling in heroin use,” he said, noting his research suggests abuse-deterrent formulas of drugs are not the hoped-for “magic bullet.”
“For this huge problem of substance abuse, simple fixes are not going to solve it. They will just steer the problem in different directions.”
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 nice1
Not the droid your looking for
Registered: 09/26/09
Posts: 10,449
Loc: earth
Last seen: 4 months, 16 days
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 Re: OxyContin replaced by explosion of small-town heroin use [Re: Playful Hate]
#16730235 - 08/20/12 10:15 AM (8 months, 28 days ago) |
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When was oxy ever cheaper than heroin? 
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Lord_McLovin
mad scientist on shrooms
Registered: 04/09/11
Posts: 2,498
Loc: infinite dimensional void
Last seen: 7 hours, 23 minutes
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Re: OxyContin replaced by explosion of small-town heroin use [Re: Playful Hate]
#16730240 - 08/20/12 10:17 AM (8 months, 28 days ago) |
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I wish people would use their fucking brains, especially politicians and government employees. 
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jack_straw2208
Doctor
Registered: 02/12/07
Posts: 871
Loc: yo mamma's house
Last seen: 21 hours, 54 minutes
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Re: OxyContin replaced by explosion of small-town heroin use [Re: Lord_McLovin]
#16731633 - 08/20/12 02:57 PM (8 months, 28 days ago) |
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Quote:
Lord_McLovin said:
I wish people would use their fucking brains, especially politicians and government employees.
shit in one hand, puke in the other!
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I'm pullin' steel wires out of my eyes
they're 20 miles long tangled up with my all insides
DieCommie said:
cut off her nose to spider face
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Doctor_Ew420
You HATE White Power Bill.
Registered: 02/02/12
Posts: 335
Last seen: 4 months, 30 days
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Re: OxyContin replaced by explosion of small-town heroin use [Re: jack_straw2208]
#16732440 - 08/20/12 05:43 PM (8 months, 28 days ago) |
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No surprise here.
I used to (recently decided it was a bad place for me) frequent a town in southern Ontario. Within Kawartha Lakes to be exact. I had some friends there and a girl I was trying to work shit out with. I predicted, like many others and watched oxycontin go from unknown > for dirty people only > good on days off > full fledged addiction > removal of oxyontin > shootings, stabbing, prostitution > methadone clinics filling up (as young as 14 year old patients) > regular heroin use > HIC, HepC > 10-15 REPORTED overdoses per week > funerals > suicides > EVERYONE smoking fentanyl... This is how far we are right now.
I know some people who are truly nice people. I see now that opiates truly are our test. I am not religious but, they are here for a reason. Some will fall weak and get their shit together and be forever stronger for it, some die. Some live shitty lives for the rest of their being not truly feeling what a person needs to when they watch their friends/family die. I have seen pretty awesome people turn into absolutely wretched thieves. I have lost every friend I had in the last 3 years to opiates and the by product of.
I think the fentanyl problem is being overlooked. I wonder why *rollseyes*... I can't really walk around my old town without seeing foil with burnt up fent squares on it floating down the street, I see people huddled in the alleys behind convenience stores with a roll of foil shiftily smoking fent.
One person I saw last time I was in that town had recently had his arm blown to shit by a sawed off 12 gauge shotgun. Why did this happen? Because in these rural areas (the more secluded you get, the higher the price) people were and still are buying oxy80's for 120-140 per pill. The guy who had his arm blown off (and apparently saved two peoples lives by doing so) was in the passenger seat of a car and was waiting to sell, was rushed and the gun was pointed into the car. He had roughly 30-40 oxy80s.
Three rather nice girls I have known have (or at least DID) turn to prostitution to keep up their habit.
3 suicides and countless overdoses. Stabbings for $60 debts. A rather young girl no more than 4foot7inches has been knocked up by a dealer and has hep C. She is keeping the baby and has overdosed at least once since becoming pregnant.
These are partly the doings of dumbasses who dont know how to live life properly. Largely it is purdues fault. This article is partly correct in saying that lots of these towns had hardly ever seen heroin. Sure almost every town in north america will have someone who will travel to buy for personal use. The odd overdose will happen but it is as if oxycontin was a way to get a large population of gullible and stupid youth addicted and then swing them all into programs in which they are watched, piss tested and fed drugs by the government. Nevermind the obvious connection between large fluxes of heroin coming into north america over the last few years (while in afghanistan) Pull oxycontin, pull out of the war and sell the people what they want while keeping it all illegal so that they can still rake in all that sweet seizure money/goods and throw people through the system, fill the courts, fill jails so they can expand and hold as many people in the grip of the seemingly accepted methadone programs.
I dont know about the US but Canadian methadone programs seem ridiculous for me. If I was in a month long depression, I could easily go buy some heroin or a couple hydromorphone pills and use for a few days, go to the clinic, sign up and have a guaranteed $6 dose whenever I wanted it. Skip a few days, skip a week... whatever, methadone whenever I want. Ridiculous. Not to mention fentanyl will not show up on their tests... Every junkie I knew used the clinic as a base coat and bought a 20 strip of patch WHILE at the the clinic from the mass of like minded people/dealers who use the clinic. It is like a daily junkie reunion "Did you hear Mark and Phil are dead?" "Yeah, got patch??"
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Lord_McLovin
mad scientist on shrooms
Registered: 04/09/11
Posts: 2,498
Loc: infinite dimensional void
Last seen: 7 hours, 23 minutes
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Re: OxyContin replaced by explosion of small-town heroin use [Re: Doctor_Ew420]
#16732521 - 08/20/12 06:00 PM (8 months, 28 days ago) |
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Damn.
Glad I neither touch opioids nor do I ever intend to.
Edited by Lord_McLovin (08/20/12 06:02 PM)
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Absent Minded
Registered: 04/13/12
Posts: 2,852
Loc: New Jersey
Last seen: 5 days, 20 hours
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Re: OxyContin replaced by explosion of small-town heroin use [Re: Doctor_Ew420]
#16732820 - 08/20/12 07:00 PM (8 months, 28 days ago) |
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Quote:
Doctor_Ew420 said:
No surprise here.
I used to (recently decided it was a bad place for me) frequent a town in southern Ontario. Within Kawartha Lakes to be exact. I had some friends there and a girl I was trying to work shit out with. I predicted, like many others and watched oxycontin go from unknown > for dirty people only > good on days off > full fledged addiction > removal of oxyontin > shootings, stabbing, prostitution > methadone clinics filling up (as young as 14 year old patients) > regular heroin use > HIC, HepC > 10-15 REPORTED overdoses per week > funerals > suicides > EVERYONE smoking fentanyl... This is how far we are right now.
I know some people who are truly nice people. I see now that opiates truly are our test. I am not religious but, they are here for a reason. Some will fall weak and get their shit together and be forever stronger for it, some die. Some live shitty lives for the rest of their being not truly feeling what a person needs to when they watch their friends/family die. I have seen pretty awesome people turn into absolutely wretched thieves. I have lost every friend I had in the last 3 years to opiates and the by product of.
I think the fentanyl problem is being overlooked. I wonder why *rollseyes*... I can't really walk around my old town without seeing foil with burnt up fent squares on it floating down the street, I see people huddled in the alleys behind convenience stores with a roll of foil shiftily smoking fent.
One person I saw last time I was in that town had recently had his arm blown to shit by a sawed off 12 gauge shotgun. Why did this happen? Because in these rural areas (the more secluded you get, the higher the price) people were and still are buying oxy80's for 120-140 per pill. The guy who had his arm blown off (and apparently saved two peoples lives by doing so) was in the passenger seat of a car and was waiting to sell, was rushed and the gun was pointed into the car. He had roughly 30-40 oxy80s.
Three rather nice girls I have known have (or at least DID) turn to prostitution to keep up their habit.
3 suicides and countless overdoses. Stabbings for $60 debts. A rather young girl no more than 4foot7inches has been knocked up by a dealer and has hep C. She is keeping the baby and has overdosed at least once since becoming pregnant.
These are partly the doings of dumbasses who dont know how to live life properly. Largely it is purdues fault. This article is partly correct in saying that lots of these towns had hardly ever seen heroin. Sure almost every town in north america will have someone who will travel to buy for personal use. The odd overdose will happen but it is as if oxycontin was a way to get a large population of gullible and stupid youth addicted and then swing them all into programs in which they are watched, piss tested and fed drugs by the government. Nevermind the obvious connection between large fluxes of heroin coming into north america over the last few years (while in afghanistan) Pull oxycontin, pull out of the war and sell the people what they want while keeping it all illegal so that they can still rake in all that sweet seizure money/goods and throw people through the system, fill the courts, fill jails so they can expand and hold as many people in the grip of the seemingly accepted methadone programs.
I dont know about the US but Canadian methadone programs seem ridiculous for me. If I was in a month long depression, I could easily go buy some heroin or a couple hydromorphone pills and use for a few days, go to the clinic, sign up and have a guaranteed $6 dose whenever I wanted it. Skip a few days, skip a week... whatever, methadone whenever I want. Ridiculous. Not to mention fentanyl will not show up on their tests... Every junkie I knew used the clinic as a base coat and bought a 20 strip of patch WHILE at the the clinic from the mass of like minded people/dealers who use the clinic. It is like a daily junkie reunion "Did you hear Mark and Phil are dead?" "Yeah, got patch??"
yup, it's the route it follows everywhere. Your area seems especially hard hit, but it's true here in NJ too. Dope is and has always been everywhere in this state, but obviously, only "scum bags, niggers and white trash" do that... now here comes oxy, and it hits the 'burbs... hmm, pretty little blue pill, gov't regulated, gotta be safe right? Lemme blow all daddy's money on this, it's much better than coke! Fast forward a couple years and kids I grew up with are robbing people for oxy and hooked on heroin. No end in sight. Oxy is gone and dope is now out of the urban areas and truly EVERYWHERE in this state now. It was a fucking explosion.
The people involved with the making of oxycontin should be lined up and shot, they knew exactly what they were doing. It's nothing but synthetic heroin. Pain management my ass. Try a generation of crippling pharm. addicts. From 15-65 year olds, no one is immune to this shit.
edit - upon reading it, that may seem like I hate the people using it. I don't, in any way - I never judge people on what path they've taken in life. I've done it myself maybe 4-6 times. Thankfully, due to lack of availability and my knowing I probably wouldn't be able to control myself if I had steady access to it, I've stayed away. My days of "hard" drug experimentation are over - even though they've probably been about 6-7 experiences overall, I'm over it. It just sucks seeing kids I grew up with in the ER and seriously hooked on this stuff.
Edited by Absent Minded (08/20/12 07:03 PM)
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