The Addiction to Oxycontin

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There is an epidemic plaguing our nation, a plague that does not discriminate between young, or old, rich or poor, the plague is the addiction to Oxycontin. A prescription narcotic first introduced 1996 by the Purdue Pharmaceutical Company ("The Promotion and Marketing of Oxycontin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy). The drug Oxycontin was quickly marketed, and aggressively promoted. The pharmaceutical corporation in 1996 made $48 million dollars and in the year 2000 that sum was about 1.1 billion dollars ("The Promotion and Marketing of Oxycontin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy). The miracle medication was intended for cancer patients whose pain level was not controlled with regular opioid medications ("The Promotion and Marketing of Oxycontin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy). Oxycontin was a wonder drug for pain, beating out Morphine sulfate. Drug companies were encouraged to market the drug to doctors throughout the nation by offering large bonuses to each drug representative for the amount of doctors who would sign up ("The Promotion and Marketing of Oxycontin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy”) and this is how the plague of the nation started.
In the United States the overdose deaths have gone up 300% since 1999 in just the sales of prescription Oxycontin. In the 2008 the drug Oxycontin had a relationship to over 14,800 overdose deaths, this account for more deaths than cocaine and heroin combined (“The Promotion and Marketing of Oxycontin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy”). From the person using the medication in a way not intended resulted in more than 475,000 emergency room visit in 2009, and this number is expected to raise at least five percent every five years (“The...

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... from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Treating_opiate_addiction_Detoxification_and_maintenance.htm
Smith, J. (2013, October 8). WV MetroNews – West Virginia ranks first in drug overdose deaths. Retrieved from http://wvmetronews.com/2013/10/08/west-virginia-ranks-first-in-drug-overdose-deaths/
Skarnulis, L. (2012). Oxycontin: Pain relief vs. abuse. In WebMD Pain Management. WebMD. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/features/oxycontin-pain-relief-vs-abuse
CDC. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/rxbrief/
Montgomery, J. (2013). Substance abuse health library. Retrieved from http://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/substance-abuse-38/drug-abuse-news-210/prescription-drug-addiction-648263.html
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Treating_opiate_addiction_Detoxification_and_maintenance.htm

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