"Gary Poppins" <[email hidden]> wrote...
Quoted message said:This is an interesting article on the possible fallout to be seen if a generic OxyContin is made
available, with some key points made by law enforcement and pain advocates. Follow this link: health.groups.yahoo.compain in theOpen ↗
law/message/584 Article is here: pressherald.com040113drugs.shtmlOpen ↗ Generic
OxyContin worries authorities By DAVID HENCH, Portland Press Herald Writer The prospect of a
generic brand of OxyContin is welcome news to people with chronic pain, but some in law
enforcement are concerned that abuse of the powerful painkiller will get worse. ...
The alleged harm and abuse due to OxyContin have been ridiculously exaggerated. Independent
scientific studies found that very few of the "overdose" deaths reportedly due to oxycontin were
actually due to oxycontin, at least alone (many were caused by taking several potent drugs at the
same time). And some were just suicides.
"Of the 919 drug abuse cases, the vast majority (N = 889, 96.7%) were multiple drug abuse deaths in
which there was at least one other plausible contributory drug in addition to oxycodone." Cone EJ,
Fant RV, Rohay JM, Caplan YH, Ballina M, Reder RF, Spyker D, Haddox JD. Oxycodone involvement in
drug abuse deaths: a DAWN-based classification scheme applied to an oxycodone postmortem database
containing over 1000 cases. J Anal Toxicol. 2003 Mar;27(2):57-67.
And see: Purdue Pharma Disputes DEA Analysis of Medical Examiner Reports Stamford, CT - April 16,
2002 - Physicians from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and Purdue Pharma attended a
meeting at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on April 12th to review for the first time
the DEA's interpretation of Medical Examiner reports on overdose deaths in which the analgesic
oxycodone was present post mortem. At the meeting, DEA presented an overview of past Medical
Examiner reports received by the agency and suggested there had been an increase in the number of
overdose deaths "attributed" to OxyContin (oxycodone HCl controlled-release) Tablets. The DEA has
acknowledged, however, that these terms do not mean that OxyContin was the cause of death. Purdue
physicians strongly disagreed with the DEA's interpretation of these reports, which suffers from
serious methodological flaws that undermine the conclusions drawn.
Of the 949 complete Medical Examiner reports received by DEA covering a two-year period, 146 deaths
were categorized by the DEA as "OxyContin verified" deaths and 318 deaths were categorized as
"OxyContin likely.". DEA acknowledged that the term "OxyContin verified" means only that the DEA
agency has concluded to its satisfaction that OxyContin was a source of the oxycodone present in
the bloodstream - - not necessarily the cause of death. The term "OxyContin- likely" is similarly
used by the DEA to speculate on the source of the oxycodone found in the blood, but not on the
cause of death. The majority of post-mortem toxicology reports showed that multiple drugs were
present. Purdue physicians strongly disagreed with the DEA's interpretation of these reports, which
suffers from serious interpretive and methodological flaws that undermine the conclusions drawn.
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Even if OxyContin should get into the hands of actual addicts, it would in fact be less dangerous
than street drugs, which typically contain dangerous contaminants and are of unknown dose.
JA Golczewski, Ph.D. users.rcn.comjg.HTMOpen ↗ Updates, free book on health and life-
extension
