Opana Creates a Deadly High – New Prescription Drug Addiction

Oxymorphone prescription drug addiction

Opana Creates a Deadly High – New Prescription Drug Addiction

Opana Creates a Deadly High – New Prescription Drug Addiction

Oxymorphone prescription drug addiction
Opana Causing New Prescription Drug Addiction Epidemic

Drugs are a medical wonder—at least when used with caution and as prescribed. Drugs that help relieve intense chronic pain for late stage cancer patients have been extraordinary at the end stages of these suffers’s lives. Unfortunately, these wonder drugs have found their way out of a professional context and onto the streets.

Illegal use of prescription drugs has exploded on the streets of mainstream America. Sadly, more and more teens are being drawn into the cycle of addiction for a quick high. There is a misconception that these prescription drugs are not as dangerous as heroin because the medications are prescribed by physicians. As a side note, many physicians do not understand the potential for addiction for many of the drugs they prescribe.

Small town America has been inundated with teen prescription drug addiction and abuse. Now, when it seemed things couldn’t get worse, Opana has hit the streets. Opana is a drug that contains oxymorphone, a morphine-like opioid agonist which is rated as a Schedule II controlled substance. This drug is an extended release formulation intended for round-the-clock pain relief. As with other opioids such as Oxycontin, when the drug is crushed, dissolved, or smoked the extended release element is destroyed. The user then experiences a rapid and intense high which may result in overdose or death.

In Indiana, nine or more people died from prescription drug overdoses in a single county. Law enforcement officials believe that the new opioid drug of choice, Opana, began when the formulary for Oxycontin changed making it more difficult to snort or inject. Opana can be found in a generic form as well.

In response to this latest scourge of prescription drug abuse, the makers of Opana are working on a new formulation to make abusing the drug more difficult. Opioids are central nervous system depressants that impact every bodily system. Using opioids in conjunction with other drugs is a deadly combination. Abusing opioids may lead to a high that leads to death.

Once an individual is addicted to opioids, whether the drugs have been prescribed or not, breaking the addiction can be painful both physically and psychologically. Withdrawal in combination with pre-existing medical conditions can lead to seizures or other life threatening conditions. A medically monitored drug detox program followed by drug rehabilitation is generally the best approach to halting the cycle of addiction.