As some of you know, my brother was killed by Oxycontin recently. This petition came to my attention from another family who lost their child to Oxycontin. Although I didn't start out to have it banned completely but to only spread awareness, I now realize it should be taken off the market altogether. It's destroying too many families and killing too many people. How many people does a drug have to kill before it's recognized as too dangerous to prescribe? There are other drugs available to manage pain. If you or your family have been affected by Oxycontin, please sign the petition below. Even if we can't get them to ban it completely, maybe it will lead to stricter regulation of this deadly and addictive opiate.

http://www.banoxycontin.com/

I don't know much about this .... what is it generaly prescribed for?

Oxycontin is a narcotic pain reliever. It's the legal equivalent of heroin. It's extremely addictive and very easy to get. Instead of using heroine and cocaine, kids have switched to using Oxycontin because they can get it from any doctor or by swiping it from anyone's medicine cabinet. It's actually an opiate, just like heroin and opium.

Here's a web page with a little more descriptive info:
http://www.drugs.com/oxycontin.html

Oxycontin is often used to relieve pain in cancer patients, especially cancer patients who can't tolerate morphine.

Any strong pain medicine has the potential for abuse, but there are some conditions where a strong painkiller is absolutely necessary. For example, when I broke my leg, I was on hydrocodone for three months. The first month and a half, I could tell right to the minute when the pain meds wore off. I had to keep them by the bed because if they wore off while I was asleep, I hurt too much to get out of bed and get them. I was pretty much out of it and sleepy, those weeks were a blur...but it was better than the couple of days after I broke my leg and before my surgery, when I would wake up beating the bed because I was dreaming that my leg was on fire and I was trying to put it out. I was scaring my kids by screaming and crying in my sleep too.

Hydrocodone is abused about as often as oxycodone, from what I've read. Still, if they had banned it and told me I had to get through my pain with tylenol, I probably would have killed myself or turned to some kind of street drugs. I used to think of myself as a strong person but now I know I'm not.

Jsmith, I'm not trying to take away from your cause or diminish your family's loss in any way. I'm just trying to point out that sometimes there are legitimate reasons that a medicine may be needed, and banning it because of potential abuse may mean that people who really need it aren't able to get it, or have to take a different, potentially more dangerous medication instead...until that medication becomes popular enough that it is frequently abused and ultimately banned as well. I've heard of some chronic pain patients having to take mandatory drug tests to show that they're taking the pain medications prescribed to them (as opposed to selling the prescription meds to someone else). I would agree with a petition asking that testing like that be made mandatory for everyone who was taking a narcotic long-term.

I hesitated to sign the petition for the same reasons you stated and for such cases as yours. But I decided to back it because I believe it is too dangerous to keep prescribing to people. I know all to well how many prescription drugs can be abused but this is the main drug that kills many people. I don't think that banning it will mean we all have to just suffer through pain, but rather it will encourage pharmaceutical companies to make less addictive drugs and encourage doctors to prescribe safer drugs. My main goal is still to spread awareness of prescription drug abuse rather than making people feel ashamed for taking them for a legitimate reason, but for those who have watched a family member suffer through addiction to painkillers, signing this petition is a small consolation.

As a recovered abuser of said Oxycontin, I could not support an outright ban. I'm also a recovered alcoholic, and would never advocate the ban of liqour. And we all know how many people that stuff takes out every day. It has it's place, and many people successfully use this and get relief from it. I am sorry to hear about your loss, and I wish this stuff didn't grab on to people the way it does, it really hurts to see someone in the throes of addiction, knowing what is likely to come to most people.
It's not the drug, it's the abusers and the loosely policed prescribing practices.


Edited for horrific spelling.

Umgrzfn....I was exactly one of those people. Seeking for the high, and not for legitimate health reasons. I feel for people who have legitimate problems and get labeled as seekers in the ER...I feel awful for them.

Year and a half ago....after the Fentanyl (which runs circles around anything Oxy) wore off after c-section, I started hurting like hell, especially after Nurse Ratchet came in and did the "punch the stomach" maneuver. Shot of morphine, pill of something...not much relief. I mean, serious pain....doubled over, get my 37 minute old child away, I can't breathe this hurts so bad.....nurse says "we need to figure out why you are in such pain and what we have given you is not helping much. Without skipping a beat, I told her straight up, I used to abuse the holy hell out of this stuff, and 3 years later, apparently still have the tolerance level....they gave me more, I felt better. Whew!

The problem is that if you banned a specific drug there would be another to take it's place that would be addictive too.

If they banned all addictive prescrition pain killers to prevent this it would condemn millions of people to needless suffering and it wouldn't help all that much because the determined people will get it illegally while the cancer patients suffer.


If something like this did pass I'd like to see everyone who signed the petition be required to spend time in children's hospitals with children who are denied their pain meds explaining to them why they have to suffer.


I do have sympathy for the pain you're feeling right now but banning stuff isn't the way to fix problems.

I do sympathize with you and I'm very sorry for your loss. I could not, however, support such a ban. My grandmother lived with severe pain for many years. Oxycontin was one of the drugs used to make her last years somewhat tolerable. Without it and other drugs like it, my grandmother would have endured unimaginable pain for years on end.

These drugs do have an important use and around here, they are quite difficult to get. Suffering from drug abuse is horrible to see, but I can attest to what watching your loved one suffer from pain that isn't controlled.

I came to read this topic and quickly realized why there are soo many issues with society when it comes to anything regarding the medical field.

especially after Nurse Ratchet came in and did the "punch the stomach" maneuver[/quote][quote]

Apparently you never thought to ask why she was in fact massaging your uterus to prevent you from hemmorage and in fact protecting your life. The trouble lies in the fact that MANY patients fail to report the fact that they are addicts, just because they arent using at that time does not mean they are not! Once an addict ALWAYS an addict!
Oxycontin is a powerful drug, YES, however; it provides relief to many people that can not go without it. The list of things that have the potential to kill someone is immense, Where should we start? or end?

Katie

Katie, I know why she did it, I was referring to the painful part of it. And yes, addicts that don't wish to change, remain addicts. I chose to not remain an "addict". Believe it or not, there is real recovery out there.

Oh man Texas....I was in such a fog, but as soon as I could move my feet again, to the room I went, and since I could move my feet, I could feel things...BAM, stomach punching (oops, I mean uterus massaging).

Ok, first of all..I don't think it's fair to "assume" someone is complaining

just to get meds that they once abused. I as well have had 3 c-sec, a TAH, among other surgeries. Most...NOT ALL (thank you for the ones that aren't) hospital nurses become robot like. They are there to do a job, compassion is on the back burner and they have a job to do and damn it that is what they are going to do. MY PROBLEM WITH THAT IS....they do get rough, they do get careless, again, robot like. I had one nurse that pushed so hard on my stomach I about came of the bed (had I been able to anyway ) and knock her on her ass!!!! Coming from a nurse, when I am around people like that, my words are "When you're job becomes just that, a job, and you lose your compasion to help others, it is time to find a new profession"!!!! I understand nurses have to do what they have to do, but do it with understanding and again, COMPASION FOR PETES SAKE!!!! As a nurse, I take each individual as just that, an individual. I do my best to comfort them. My job is not just a "job", but my life. I also put myself in their shoes, I'm a patient as well. How would I like it if..... Anyway, back to the main subject. Katie, she DID tell the nurse she use to abuse oxycontin!!! Texas, it is and should be done after birth (vaginal), c/s, they should have you cough to prevent fluid build up in your lungs. It is not as common to massage the uterus after a c/s. I worked for an OB/Gyn, that's the practice here.

You know....I had to ask my hubby about everything that happened that night almost. I remember big things of course, but reasons for this and that, or little things I didn't even realize happened...I had to be filled in on that stuff. He said, the nurse did warn him that I would be pretty aggravted at what she was going to do (stomach), but I still hold firm that I wasn't warned about it until after it happened! I think she figured, just do it and apologize rather than prep me for ultimate pain..


I don't envy that poor lady's job one bit. I bet she hates having to do it.

I had the mash on the stomach thing after my c-section too. Two nurses did it while I was still on the operating table (this was 23 years ago). It was by far the most painful part of the whole experience, even though it was necessary and short-lived. I feel for ya.

Maybe I should have made a few things clear...

Not only am I currently a Nurse, I am also completing my masters in nursing and one step closer to becoming a midwife.

The point of my post was not so much to be taken at the action that was performed but the misunderstandings in healthcare. Related to the abuse problem that many patients and non-patients develop because of pain medication. Many people are just not aware of the actual fact and THIS causes MANY problems. I just finished a shift and actually had a patient recieving more oxycontin in one dose than I could take in the rest of my life. He was also close to death and this was the only thing that made him function enough to spend some last moments with his family.

I do agree that there is a problem with these medications but I dont think banning them is the answer.