The banning of generic OxyContin, also known as oxycodone or Oxy, a prescribed and controlled medical opiate, in Ontario, Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces this past March by their provincial governments is being correlated by addictions services and opiate users to a possible rise of heroin’s presence on the streets. Discussions concerning the negative implications of removing the drug are also ongoing in other provinces as health ministers push for a ban of OxyContin as a painkiller.
Introduced to the public for the first time in 1996, OxyContin saw sales of a few million dollars by 1998. Twelve years later, sales had risen to $243 million. Aggressively marketed as a non-addictive painkiller, OxyContin turned out to be a very addictive opiate that had recreational and prescribed users struggling with physical dependence. Canada has the second-highest number of prescription opioid painkiller addictions and the world’s second-highest death rate from overdoses of the drug. The United States is number one in both categories.
OxyContin has caused an addiction epidemic that brought provincial governments to push forward legislation to ban the drug. According to the Toronto Star, “As of February 29, 2012, Ontario passed legislation delisting oxycodone from the province’s public drug benefit program.” Patients who were prescribed OxyContin had one month then were transferred over to OxyNeo, a safer formulation of OxyContin, until April 2, 2013. Only patients approved by the Exceptional Access Program will be allowed a prescription past this date.
The manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, has now stopped making OxyContin altogether, replacing it with OxyNeo. A number of pharmacies across the country also discontinued the sale of OxyContin due to its negative connotation in the media and a high incidence of theft of the drug.
Heroin, also known as diamorphine or diacetylmorphine, is an illegal, highly-addictive opiate that can be taken intravenously, orally, through snorting or as a suppository. Diamorphine was first synthesized from opium poppies in 1874 by C. R. Alder Wright and became popular 23 years later. It was first marketed as a non-addictive substitute for morphine and cough suppressant. In 1925, diacetylmorphine was banned after it was discovered that it metabolized into morphine.
Both OxyContin and heroin are opiates. OxyContin, which is most commonly snorted by abusers, was once a readily available and inexpensive drug. It has similar euphoric effects as heroin does, but with fewer side effects.
Through his own personal experiences and witnessing others, an anonymous source said OxyContin is a very addictive drug.
“It gives you that feeling that cocaine does,” they said. “It’s very, very addictive.”
Clinicians and addictions services have speculated that this limited access to OxyContin will cause heroin to become more popular among opiate abusers. Now that OxyContin, referred to as “hillbilly heroin,” is harder to access across Canada, users are looking to other opiates for a similar high. In Canada, one-10th of a gram of heroin, which equals three or four injections, sells for $40.
According to the Canada Border Services Agency, Calgary Police Service personnel discovered luggage with a false bottom at the Calgary International Airport containing over $4 million in heroin in April. The United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime states there are between 16–21 million heroin and opiate users globally between the ages of 15–64.
Our source said OxyContin’s ban will lead to a rise in heroin use.
“The people that lived above me would sell drugs to support their Oxy habit. They were definitely overusing,” said our source. “If they couldn’t get their hands on it, they would go for something similar.”
A spike in the number of heroin users has not yet occurred in Calgary. However, manager of Adult Addictions Services Calgary George McBride expects heroin use will increase as abusers of OxyContin are denied the same ease of drug access. He also said that street drugs are more dangerous than pharmaceuticals, posing other problems for users.
Heroin found on the streets is a more simplified version of diamorphine due to its quicker synthesis, allowing more unknown substances to be present in the drug. These substances, known as adulterants, include baking soda, methamphetamine and others and are the leading cause of overdoses.
“You don’t know what you’re buying,” warns McBride of street drugs. “You know what you think you’re buying. Drugs are often cut with other things that are very dangerous.”