RollinOhioX said:
speaking from a 24 year old OC addict of 3 years after 5 detox/rehabs and now a 230mg a day methadone user I say STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM OXYCODONE If you like hydro then good for you just dont do em too much But OC's are in a whole different league I was spending $200+ daily to support my OC habit Those things have ruined mine along with about 30 people I know lives. If you've never done OC's please please take my advice and steer very clear
Used without crushing, orally, for chronic pain sufferers there is a less than 10% risk of addiction with oxycontin or virtually any other opiate.
As someone with severe, possibly life-long chronic pain who has suffered through hell for years because docs are afraid to prescribe drugs whose names appear frequently in the media (leading to long-acting morphines and hydrocodone being the only options that any significant number of doctors are even remotely willing to consider....and that's among the absolute best most compassionate on the planet)....I get pretty frustrated when people who have approached a prescription medication designed for use by people in chronic pain, and had problems with it....continue to approach them in recovery like they are exactly what the prohibitionists and ignorant politicians think they are. "Drugs" with no redeeming value.
Oxycontin has tremendous redeeming value. I would almost certainly experience a very substantial improvement in quality of life if my doctor were willing to prescribe me oxycontin instead of MScontin. I don't want to be high, I just want to be able to function as much as possible to help my wife and our little baby. I want to be able to be a husband and father just not for them, but for our future children as well. So I need to be able to get the best possible medications for my situation regardless of the politics. If I can get better relief at a similar cost with a better side effect profile and less disturbing dreams.....then that's what should be happening, but it isn't. Because even people who ought to, and probably do, know better....aren't giving us chronic pain sufferers enough credit. And frankly, you're not giving the opiates enough credit.
Obviously they can be very problematic for people buying them on the black market, shooting them up or even just abusing them however. But the real issue there is the abuse, not the substance.
I'm sorry if it seems like I'm jumping all over you, man, when obviously you have issues you're working out and I don't mean to be an ass about this. It's just that after all that I have been through and continue to struggle with, I can't leave this kind of issue alone. I have nothing but respect and compassion for people with addiction problems. But I think that addicts in particular, who should be among the best educated in drug sciences and harm reduction, should know that chronic pain is massively under-treated and it's only getting (MUCH!) worse because of the recent diversion "epidemic" that the press loves to babble on about with very little real knowledge of what all the factors are.
Please, for all of those of us whose "addiction" is forced on us by chronic pain, keep our situations in mind when you comment on these issues! Your problems are no less valid than my own but there's a lot more to the story of opiates than just addiction and the 'recreational' appeal of the effects!
