Oxy & The Epidemic

 08.21.2022

Oxycodone

Brand name: Oxycontin 

Main Results:

Descrip

*Narcotic*

It can treat moderate to severe pain.

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Controlled substance

High risk for addiction and dependence. Can cause respiratory distress and death when taken in high doses or when combined with other substances, especially alcohol or other illicit drugs such as heroin or cocaine.

Wow.

As a precaution due to my addiction history, I've always asked my doctors, surgeons, and dental surgeons to NOT prescribe oxycodone to me. The stories of oxy preceded my 2012 beginnings into my hip replacements, then elbow surgery, then tibia, fibula, and ribs. Some of these really hurt, as up then, I'd never broken a bone or been hospitalized. Other than when I had my tonsils out in second grade or cut my hand on plate glass. So I never really had any incidents between 1991 after I got sober until the 2012 hip surgeries.

I think it was Percocet or Hydrocodone I was prescribed after my first hip surgery. Whatever it was, I liked it enough to not really want to get off of them. Thankfully, I saw the signs and knew enough to NOT want them for my second hip replacement.

The oxy epidemic is real. In 2020, an average of 44 people died each day from overdoses involving prescription opioids, totaling more than 16,000 deaths. 1 Prescription opioids were involved in nearly 18% of all opioid overdose deaths in 2020, with over a 16% increase in prescription opioid-involved death rates from 2019 to 2020. 

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), there were 53 million oxycodone prescriptions filled by US pharmacies in 2013. While many of those prescriptions were for legitimate medical use, a large number are diverted onto the black market for sale as recreational opioid drugs.

So if you know of anyone, anywhere, in any position, legitimate or not, please say something. To someone, them or someone that can assist in any way possible. I'd hate to continue to see these stats rise.

Thank you for stopping in.