4 ms·

I vaguely thought that many if not most of the casualties from oxycontin were due to adulteration with fentanyl. And I also thought that the OG opiate, that ha

I vaguely thought that many if not most of the casualties from oxycontin were due to adulteration with fentanyl. And I also thought that the OG opiate, that has been used and abused for much longer than either has been around, is morphine. So I'm not entirely clear on why I don't read about the same level of anger regarding makers of those drugs.

EdwardDiego 5y ago
The deliberate marketing of an addictive drug as "less addictive", aggressively marketing it to doctors... Don't recall anyone doing so with fentanyl.
- zardo 5y ago
  It's competitive advantage was 10hrs between doses, that meant one dose per nursing shift rather two. A big plus from a hospital's point of view. However pain relief was inadequate by hour 8, so the recommendation needed adjustment. Rather than make the recommendation in the patients interest of lowering the time between doses, they made the recommendation in their own (and the hospital's) financial interest. Increasing the dose.
  - EdwardDiego 5y ago
    What does "it" refer to? Oxycontin or fentanyl?
    - zardo 5y ago
      Oxycontin
- perl4ever 5y ago
  I think we all recall the media coverage. That isn't the same thing as recalling actual interactions with doctors, and not recalling something (let alone not recalling media reporting) is different from recalling that a thing didn't happen. They were all prescribed for a family member of mine who had cancer, in the sequence: oxycontin, then fentanyl, and then morphine. Nobody said anything about the addictiveness.
mindslight 5y ago
Lots of money, easy target, and cognitive dissonance collapse focusing blame on the medical establishment. CIA are notorious drug traffickers, the military industrial complex started a forever war in a region known for farming poppies, and then several years later we had a heroin epidemic. The market shift to fentanyl made it nice and easy to wrap up as a singular problem, and then blame it all on prescription abuse. I feel fucking sorry for people suffering chronic pain that are getting shut out of proper medical care these days. I'm just thankful I was able to get enough pain meds when I was taking care of a family member dying of cancer. Some of the doctors would get a bit defensive when I talked specific drugs (I'm the primary provider of pain management, you idiot). But the oncologist gave me a nice big bottle of no-acetaminophen non-time-release before discharging, and so I never ended up in a desperate situation. I've still got some left over that I'm holding on to, because access to essential medicines without totalitarian policing or wealth stripping is a human right.
resoluteteeth 5y ago
> I vaguely thought that many if not most of the casualties from oxycontin were due to adulteration with fentanyl. Are you thinking of cocaine? Oxycontin is sold commercially in the us and almost definitely not adulterated with fentanyl. Also, fentanyl probably isn't worse or significantly different than other opioids when converted by dose, it's really just dangerous because it's so potent so it's easier to smuggle (smaller quantities for the same number of doses) and when it's used/mixed with other drugs without care it's easy to screw up the quantity and kill someone accidentally (however this is true of stuff like bulk caffeine powder, for example, as well). The reason there is more anger about oxycontin than morphine is that morphine needs to be injected, plus oxycontin was marketed as being less addictive than other opioids and initially given out in large quantities for this reason, resulting in lots of people (allegedly) becoming addicted after it was prescribed without abusing it.
- perl4ever 5y ago
  >Oxycontin is sold commercially in the us and almost definitely not adulterated with fentanyl. I assume you are correct, if it's not counterfeit. From a DEA fact sheet, attributed to the CDC: "Synthetic opioids, such as illicit fentanyl, remain the primary driver of the increase in overdose deaths, accounting for 80 percent of all deaths involving an opioid"
  - DanBC 5y ago
    Some caution is needed around any information about oxycontin, because Purdue spent so much time and money pumping bad science everywhere.
- coolgeek 5y ago
  > Are you thinking of cocaine? Fentanyl isn't used to cut cocaine. It's used to cut heroin (and possibly other opioids). Cocaine and heroin have diametrically opposite usage profiles

EdwardDiego 5y ago

The deliberate marketing of an addictive drug as "less addictive", aggressively marketing it to doctors... Don't recall anyone doing so with fentanyl.

zardo 5y ago
It's competitive advantage was 10hrs between doses, that meant one dose per nursing shift rather two. A big plus from a hospital's point of view. However pain relief was inadequate by hour 8, so the recommendation needed adjustment. Rather than make the recommendation in the patients interest of lowering the time between doses, they made the recommendation in their own (and the hospital's) financial interest. Increasing the dose.
- EdwardDiego 5y ago
  What does "it" refer to? Oxycontin or fentanyl?
  - zardo 5y ago
    Oxycontin
perl4ever 5y ago
I think we all recall the media coverage. That isn't the same thing as recalling actual interactions with doctors, and not recalling something (let alone not recalling media reporting) is different from recalling that a thing didn't happen. They were all prescribed for a family member of mine who had cancer, in the sequence: oxycontin, then fentanyl, and then morphine. Nobody said anything about the addictiveness.

mindslight 5y ago

Lots of money, easy target, and cognitive dissonance collapse focusing blame on the medical establishment. CIA are notorious drug traffickers, the military industrial complex started a forever war in a region known for farming poppies, and then several years later we had a heroin epidemic. The market shift to fentanyl made it nice and easy to wrap up as a singular problem, and then blame it all on prescription abuse. I feel fucking sorry for people suffering chronic pain that are getting shut out of proper medical care these days. I'm just thankful I was able to get enough pain meds when I was taking care of a family member dying of cancer. Some of the doctors would get a bit defensive when I talked specific drugs (I'm the primary provider of pain management, you idiot). But the oncologist gave me a nice big bottle of no-acetaminophen non-time-release before discharging, and so I never ended up in a desperate situation. I've still got some left over that I'm holding on to, because access to essential medicines without totalitarian policing or wealth stripping is a human right.

resoluteteeth 5y ago

> I vaguely thought that many if not most of the casualties from oxycontin were due to adulteration with fentanyl. Are you thinking of cocaine? Oxycontin is sold commercially in the us and almost definitely not adulterated with fentanyl. Also, fentanyl probably isn't worse or significantly different than other opioids when converted by dose, it's really just dangerous because it's so potent so it's easier to smuggle (smaller quantities for the same number of doses) and when it's used/mixed with other drugs without care it's easy to screw up the quantity and kill someone accidentally (however this is true of stuff like bulk caffeine powder, for example, as well). The reason there is more anger about oxycontin than morphine is that morphine needs to be injected, plus oxycontin was marketed as being less addictive than other opioids and initially given out in large quantities for this reason, resulting in lots of people (allegedly) becoming addicted after it was prescribed without abusing it.

perl4ever 5y ago
>Oxycontin is sold commercially in the us and almost definitely not adulterated with fentanyl. I assume you are correct, if it's not counterfeit. From a DEA fact sheet, attributed to the CDC: "Synthetic opioids, such as illicit fentanyl, remain the primary driver of the increase in overdose deaths, accounting for 80 percent of all deaths involving an opioid"
- DanBC 5y ago
  Some caution is needed around any information about oxycontin, because Purdue spent so much time and money pumping bad science everywhere.
coolgeek 5y ago
> Are you thinking of cocaine? Fentanyl isn't used to cut cocaine. It's used to cut heroin (and possibly other opioids). Cocaine and heroin have diametrically opposite usage profiles