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The prescription painkiller OxyContin prescribed to reduce chronic pain, has, within the last two years, become a chronic pain for communities and law enforcement officials. While the University of Maine community remains almost untouched by the powerful narcotic effects of OxyContin, its threat remains very real.
Dr. Robert Dana, senior associate dean of the Center for Students and Community Life, said he has seen a number of students on campus who have OxyContin abuse or dependency problems but that it is a rare addiction on a college campus.
“We know that OxyContin is heavily used around us and in the state,” Dana said. “Now it’s becoming a national tailpipe phenomenon. We are going to push it into a zone where more crime and opiate abuse and addiction cause trouble for everyone.”
Other drugs like GHB, Ecstasy and Rohypnol, which also have powerful narcotic effects have begun appearing in the area and across the nation. In 1999, Public Safety reported 143 drug related offenses on campus but no specific drugs were listed. The number of OxyContin related drug offenses on campus, if any, were unavailable.
Dr. Mark Jackson of Cutler Health Center, is not as concerned about OxyContin as he is about other drugs, such as alcohol and marijuana. “Our campus is as safe as we, collectively students, staff and faculty choose to make it,” Jackson said. “The danger out in the community is not the individual with the addiction but by an attitude that minimizes the danger of these substances.”
But OxyContin has proven to be a problem in communities and counties throughout the state. Cumberland and Androscoggin counties listed high crime rates in relation to the drug. The Bangor area of Penobscot County has also seen a large eruption of problems stemming from OxyContin use. In 2000, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency reports 160 arrests for prescription drug offenses, up from 80 people in 1999 and 40 people in 1998.
“[OxyContin] is very popular because it gives a high similar to heroin,” Caren Epstein, media-relations representative from Hannaford Brothers, said. “It’s also a drug which people can easily get, which makes it very desirable as a street drug.”
That high comes at an expensive price. In order to access the full effects of OxyContin, its time-release coating must be removed and the pill crushed. At that point it can be injected, inhaled, swallowed or added to drinks, making it attractive to young people. Heroin, which produces the same kind of high, must be injected for the full effect.
According to Dana OxyContin is a very expensive high. The drug runs about $1 per milligram or $10 for a 10-milligram pill. The street value for the pill is higher – between $1 and $10 for a single milligram. The high resale price, in addition to the accessibility to the drug, has helped make OxyContin a drug of choice and earned it the rank of 19 in the top 100 most abused prescription drugs in the United States.
According to the Maine Attorney General Office’s 2000 report, OxyContin is gaining wide acceptance and use by 16- to 20-year-olds. Twenty-one year-olds are the most common users of OxyContin and heroin. People ages 35 to 40 are most likely to abuse the drug.
Perdue Pharma, producer of OxyContin, does not claim responsibility for the abuse of the narcotic. However, the company has been working proactively to stem problem users. A release issued by James W. Heins, Perdue Pharma spokesman, stated that the company has launched a pilot program in Maine and Virginia to supply physicians with tamper-proof prescription pads to use when prescribing OxyContin. Maine and Virginia have the highest OxyContin abuse rates in the nation.
Perdue Pharma has also committed millions of dollars to research pain-reducing medicine that is resistant to abuse.
In the meantime, prevention remains on the forefront of many people’s minds. Hannaford Brothers has removed the drug from its pharmacies and has made it available only to patients who have a prescription. Even then they have to wait about a day to get the drug. Cutler Health Center does not prescribe or supply OxyContin in its pharmacy. And in May, the Bangor Methadone Clinic will open to treat people with addictions to heroin or OxyContin.
The methadone clinic is something Dana, community members, city council members and experts have been against since its inception.
According to Dana, who is also a member of the advisory committee for the methadone clinic program, it would do nothing to stop abuse, instead it would simply treat symptoms, provide methadone and some treatment and send the person back on the street.
“Methadone is quite ineffective as a replacement therapy,” Dana said. “It’s a seductive nuisance and it doesn’t necessarily fix the relationship to heroin. By having a methadone clinic in Bangor, they’ll come and stay and when they relapse [when they're back out] where do they go? That means there will be more users in the area.”
Instead, he said, there are options that are not being made available. These options include an advanced modification treatment program where users learn substance behavior skills, are trainer for jobs and receive counseling from a counselor and a self-help group. They are also given the drug replacement therapy of Buprenorphine.
“This drug is much safer and there’s not the diversion potential present,” Dana said. “It is available in a doctor’s office rather than a methadone clinic. People with opiate problems won’t go to a methadone clinic so we need to make treatment more readily available.”
Jackson, who is also on the advisory committee, is less adverse to the idea of a methadone clinic in Bangor. He said, if managed well, there would be improvements for both the community and the patients, but the key is to understand the abuse problem and to try and help people break the cycle of abuse. Changing attitudes and helping people find alternatives to managing pain are among the things to tackle first.
An all-encompassing effort from the medical field, law enforcement and the community, as well as providing alternatives and prevention tactics are approaches Dana suggests.
“Students need to have their eyes wide open that these drugs, heroin and OxyContin, are here and that they should avoid them at all costs,” Dana said. “You can’t cure the epidemic by fixing the sick and wounded, you should treat it by not putting all your eggs in one place.”
