BY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
According to federal figures, treatments for the abuse of prescription painkillers has risen 430 percent over the last 10 years. Now four companies are studying a new pain reliever that is said to be 10 times more powerful than Vicodin, and addiction experts are concerned about the potential of further abuse.
A pure version of the addictive ingredient hydrocodone is included in Zohydro, which is a timed-release drug intended for use in treating moderate to severe pain.
According to CBS News, hydrocodone is listed among the group of drugs including morphine, oxycodone, codeine, heroin, and methadone. These drugs are all chemically similar to opium.
April Rovero, the president of the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse said, according to an Associated Press report on Fox News, "I have a big concern that this could be the next OxyContin." The Drug Enforcement Agency said oxycodone has become the most-abused medicine in the United States, and hydrocodone is right behind. Drug abusers found they could beat the timed-release by crushing the pills.
Zogenix, a company from San Diego, wants to begin marketing Zohydro in early 2013. Their chief executive, Roger Hawley, claims Zohydro will be safer than Vicodin because Vicodin contains acetaminophen, which can hurt the liver through high doses, according to Mail Online. Also, the drug companies are saying patients will be watched closely because they have to return to their doctors for every refill they may need.
The other three companies doing the research, Perdue Pharma, Cephalon, and Egalet will be developing their own versions of the product.
The New York Daily News reported that Drug Enforcement Administration data found that the number of emergency room visits linked to hydrocodone jumped from 19,221 in 2000 all the way to 86,258 in 2009.
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Moreover, I'm shocked at the amount of people who don't want this drug to see the light of day. You're forgetting that these aren't illicit drugs - they're prescribed because millions of Americans live in debilitating pain. That you people would deny 10 car accident victims or cancer patients adequate relief to stop 1 teenager from popping pills reveals that you're either shortsighted and morally bankrupt, or you have no experience with the horrors of chronic pain.
Peace.
Every few weeks the media rolls out another scare story about drugs. This drug is actually significantly INFERIOR in potency to oxycodone.
Whereas there may be thousands who use opiates recreationally, there are millions who are left to suffer by doctors so afraid of the DEA that they will prescribe no controlled substances whatsoever, instead writing prescriptions for the latest feeble NSAID (a drug family created to allow doctors to prescribe a "pain pill" without writing a prescription for a narcotic.)
I'd like to see a story about the suicides who takes their lives because they cannot get help for their intractable pain. Then talk to me about the dangers of addiction.
You'd better hurry, though, the chemists want their coffee, stat.
and if people are truly concerned about their kids hopping on the addict train i think there's a much bigger problem there than whether or not pharmaceutical companies release an addictive product and how available it is. take some responsibility and stop blaming these so-called "mystically addictive" substances for the choices people make. alternatively, suck it up, live and let live. it's none of your business.
(RE: the gun remark: yes, actually, if used properly, a gun will kill. that is its intended purpose, after all: harm. even in cases of self-defense, the keyword there is "defense". when you pick up a gun, you don't do so expecting it to fire flowers and glitter at whatever your target is. interesting that weaponry is more widely available than medication when the former is used so often to hurt OTHERS and application of the latter is a matter of personal choice.