The hard toll of ‘hillbilly heroin’
TEAL JOHANNSON-KNOX
Street drug ‘Oxycontin’ – addictive and devastating to many of those who play its game
Photo courtesy of Gemma Fairfull
Oxycontin was first developed by the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma in the mid 1990s. For people suffering constantly from moderate to severe pain, rather than taking several pills throughout the day, they could take medication with a prescription like Oxycontin. Oxycontin provides pain relief for up to 12 hours.
That’s a wide scale of pain. The medication had the possibility of being prescribed to a large population for all their aches and pains. The drug can make people dependent.
Oxy is an opioid drug similar to morphine, codeine and heroin. So much so that users have compared it to heroine. Purdue’s oxy became ‘hillbilly heroin’ for its heroin-like high and sells for a low price in comparison. Prices on the street for one pill of Oxycontin range from $20 and up for one tablet depending on how many milligrams it contains. Tablets can be 10mg to 80mg.
Currently there is no statistical information on Oxycontin addiction in Canada.
The warnings and precautions on oxy’s prescription advise that the pill may cause dizziness, sleepiness, alterations in consciousness and judgment, and with some cases comas. If you are in severe pain this may sound like just what you have been waiting for, or any serious drug users’ dream.
“I was feeling so good when I first tried it, I didn’t want to leave,” recalls Johnson who has been clean for nearly half a year.
He continued to use oxy after just one pill.
Johnson says he had been kicked out of various high schools. Nor could he hold down a part-time job. To feed his addiction, he relied on selling things around the house.
“I realized I hit an all time low when I was living an in abandoned house with no heat, along with my buddy Tyler,” says Johnson.
Andrea Johnson, Erik’s older sister, has abused prescription drugs herself. Her drug of choice: none other than oxy.
Johnson was not always sure where her dealer got the oxy, and says she didn’t care. “I paid, and got what I paid for. Otherwise I didn’t care where it was coming from.”
Asked if she had the faintest idea where her dealer would come up with the drug, Johnson said, “It had to start from someone’s prescription, I’m thinking. I’ve heard of boys breaking into drug stores to get it.”
She explains that once users are hooked on oxy, they’ll do anything for it. “I think back about being addicted, and it’s horrible that something so addictive is even for sale.”
When using, Johnson says she would have half a pill in the morning and the other half in the evening.
Her addiction got too expensive and she couldn’t afford to take any more. To get the most of what little she had, she would crush the pill and snort the powder, giving her a rush of the numbing feel provided by the tiny pill.
Despite fights with her parents, and various stints in rehab, Johnson realized she had a serious problem when she fell asleep at her part-time job on the assembly line of cosmetics factory in Barrie, Ont.
“It’s hot, loud in there. How do you fall asleep standing in a place like that?” she says.
“I can’t believe that it even passed through my mind, but I felt sick. I can’t even describe the sick feeling of the withdrawals. I thought I would feel so much better if I were dead.”
Andrea was finally admitted to rehab and was later released before the holidays in 2009. Her younger brother on the other hand had to spend time in prison and under house arrest for various charges forcing him to go cold turkey.
The Johnson siblings no longer use oxy, but there are many still abusing it and other prescription drugs. It was only the beginning of 2011 when Erik said goodbye to a good friend who overdosed on oxy. His friend, Tyler Rhude, 22, died Jan. 6, 2011.
“Oxy is still a huge problem,” Johnson says.
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