A is for Apple, O is for OxyContin

If they're good enough for Rush Limbaugh, they're apparently good enough for our City's school kids. The Post reports today that there are twice as many NYC eighth graders illegally using painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin than there were five years ago. This surge has lead authorities to a crackdown on pushers, nabbing five NY State doctors who were peddling the stuff to kiddies. Both drugs are opioid derivatives similar to morphine (Vicodin also contains acetaminophen, which is the active ingredient in Tylenol) and can be highly addictive.

A study by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) found that while the use of other illicit drugs like marijuana was down among students nationwide, prescription drug abuse has been on the march with as many as one out of ten high-school seniors reporting popping Vicodin. Local doctors and pharmacists have been held as responsible for the problem, with one Long Island doc writing so many illegal prescriptions that he single handedly put millions of dollars worth of painkillers onto the black market.

Teens can check out the NIDA for Teens site to see what all those groovy pills are really doing to their insides.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Kapil Desai on June 18, 2007 1:58 PM

Comments [rss]

guest

Thanks Rush Limbaugh for poisoning our kids' minds and now bodies, you fat fucking bloated cow. Die.

maevro

Its Suboxone and very few doctors can dispense Suboxone and Subutex anyway. They have to be licensed, so for now we continue to get clients on methadone if they are struggling with constant relapse. Methadone means the State of NY makes all the money.

I am a CASAC and work in a rehab but I was an opiate addict. I got OC by the 100's and it was never from a doctor, but from pharmacies and people legally prescribed who would sell it. Take the doctor shopping out of it will only make a small dent in the illegal market, plus most adolescents who abuse it are not getting it from a doctor anyway.

After all of these people build a huge habit and tolerance to the OC, they will eventually try heroin.

guest

I call bullshit on this article. Anything from the Post and the NIDA is likely a pack of lies strung together with half truths. In fact, basically every "InfoFact" on heroin the NIDA lists have been debunked over 30 years ago. Blanket drug prohibition is one of the worst things to ever happen in this country.

guest

All, I can say is holy cow.........when is society going to get it??

The doctors just keep getting richer who write these prescriptions.

They get people hooked than they need another doctor with more meds to

get them off the oxy. I really believe the pharm companies are in this together, just think about how much money Purdue Pharma is making and the makers of suboxene?????