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Oxycontin, addiction, and general stupidity

So, it looks like Purdue got dinged like 600 kerzillion dollars because “misleading the public about the painkiller‘s risk of addiction”. There are websites cropping up about class action lawsuits against the company, blah blah blah.
AMERICA! THIS IS WHY THE COST OF YOUR MEDICATION IS SO FUCKING HIGH!!! You think a bullshit lawsuit like this would fly in Canada or Mexico? NO! Lets sue God because water could be misused and we could drown in it.
The article is here:
Now I’m not siding with Purdue one bit, but I think the doctors themselves are partially to blame. Purdue got dinged because they were “claiming to doctors that OxyContin was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications.”
One question. If that was the case, why is it a C2 and not a C3 or C4? Doctors, get your head out of your collective asses and start using COMMON SENSE rather than listening to dumbass drug reps. Oxycodone has been out for a bazillion years. Why all of a sudden would it become less addicting/habit forming/etc just because its in an extended release tablet? How can you expect a morphine analog that has a lower first pass clearance than morphine to be LESS addicting/habit-forming/etc? Here, I have this nice drug called Heroin thats a less addictive alternative to morphine (its a joke, if you knew the history of heroin you’d understand) AND I have this wonderful bridge for sale! Gimme a break. When Oxycontin came out I could see a mile away that people were going to be hooked on this stuff. I saw it with MSContin too. Thats why its a C2 people! High potential for abuse! Same class as cocaine!
If I were a doctor, this is how the conversation would go:
HotRep: Doctor, this Oxycontin is a less addictive pain medication.
Me: O RLY? Why is it a C2 then?
HotRep: Well, because it has a high abuse potential, but its less than morphine.
Me: Oh, if its more bioavailable than morphine, then how does it make it less abusive?
HotRep: Dont make me explain this to you *bending over to show her clevage* Have some free pens and pads.
Me: YES! I SHALL WRITE FOR IT FOR ALL MY PATIENTS!
HotRep: I knew you’d see the light.
Heres what gets me:

Attorneys for the three executives said giving them criminal convictions was punishment enough, and noted they were charged because of their job titles, not because they themselves promoted OxyContin as a drug with little addiction potential.
The speakers, many of whose children died after trying the drug only once, disagreed.
Nuss held up a stone urn slightly larger than a pill bottle that she said contained her 18-year-old son‘s ashes.
“By pleading guilty they acknowledged that doing nothing was not good enough,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Ramseyer said. “We cannot bring those people back. It‘s not something this case can do.”

Oh, I’m sorry. Your child died after he ABUSED A C2 NARCOTIC. Gee, go figure. Maybe you should stop blaming other people for your child’s death, and start blaming your CHILD and YOURSELF because you raised an IDIOT who couldn’t say no? Lets sue Clorox because little Jimmy drank a bottle of bleach and died. Am I the only one here sane enough to realize that people have a huge problem with taking personal responsibility for their actions here? How could Purdue even remotely be responsible for a child’s death after he/she got Oxycontin ILLEGALLY and abused it? Should the drug magically know that its being used in a child and not work? What in holy fucking hell are people thinking here? Has the world gone mad? Do people think that these drugs are safe?
Wait, this gets better:

Survivors of the victims want the Food and Drug Administration to reclassify OxyContin for use only for severe pain. The drug currently can be prescribed for moderate pain.

Arrrrg!! Im dying here! Moderate vs severe pain? How can you tell? If I get my skin ripped off, am I classified as moderate or severe? Now comparing this with getting my nuts slammed in a drawer I would have to say I am in moderately severe pain. Lets put a label on something that is very person specific.
So next time you’re bitching as to why your medication costs $300 bucks a month, think of this and all the lawsuits that are going to be flying around. Oh, and when your loved one is dying of cancer pain and your doctor only prescribes him Tylenol #3 or Norco for fear of being sued, this is why.

Comments #

Comment by Mike (slightly less angry) on 2007-07-24 21:07:16 -0700 #

I hate to be “that guy,” but my inability to control calling “shennaniganz” prevents me from it. First, I would like to tell you that we may have been separated at birth. Secondly, I didn’t know I had a twin. Your takes on this shit makes me feel like common sense is not lost (but we KNOW it is). Okay, having said that: I am intending NO disrespect by telling you heroin (diacetylmorphine) is the most addictive form of morphine, not vice versa. I am not a Pharm.D., but I play one in everyday life. Everything else is the balls.
Keep truckin’ playa

Comment by stephen wulf on 2007-07-25 05:51:42 -0700 #

finally, someone with common sense…I too am flat out, hands down upset that people can’t take more responsibility for themselves. Our country is soaring out of control because people don’t know how to take control of their own lives…good post

Comment by madge on 2007-07-25 09:08:16 -0700 #

amen! there is no personal responsibility anymore in this country. and, yes, i am a pharmacist.
ps – the 18 year old that used oxy illegally and met with an untimely end…well, he’s an adult, and should know how to say “no” at that point!

Comment by Chris on 2007-07-25 10:16:49 -0700 #

Hey man i completly agree with you! It is ridiculious how sue crazy people are. Its not the drug companys fault at all. Its a CII. Its kept in a safe. People try to steal it. There is a reason. Because its a high potential for abuse!!! That kids mom shouldn’t even be suing her kid wasn’t supposed to be using it. Why doesn’t she sue the person that gave it to her son!!! Dumbass people!

Comment by Trusted.MD Network on 2007-07-25 10:55:28 -0700 #

OxyContin: Who’s to blame?

The Angry Pharmacist has his thoughts, and doesn’t hold back:
Now I’m not siding with Purdue one bit, but I think the doctors themselves are partially to blame. Purdue got dinged because they were “claiming to doctors that OxyContin was less addictive and

Comment by William Barrett MD on 2007-07-25 13:53:18 -0700 #

I agree with the tremendous need for personal resonsibility in our society.But,unfortunately,there is alot of other blame to go around.I remember that this was also the time that JACHO was berating us for undertreating pain,and making pain the fifth VS.
We had legislators in our state proposing sanctions against doctors if patients felt their pain needs wern’t adaquately treated.
Now these same people are sayiny we overtreat and its our fault.

Comment by DrRx on 2007-07-25 14:49:09 -0700 #

OK, I completely understand this one. I will tell you this…. The most addictive opioid and hardest to withdrawal from is the one that the government allows people to be on LEGALLY for addiction treatment (Methadone). But that aside, I understand the angle that Purdue was coming from the LESS addictive side. An extended release product is going to be LESS addictive than an immediate release product because the same peak blood levels are not attained, thus the ‘rush’ is not there with ER products….UNLESS, you COMPROMISE the release form! So those Purdue reps weren’t wrong for saying that Oxycontin was going to have less addictive potential than oxyfast…when the formulation wasn’t compromised. The proof is in the pudding as they say…the folks ABUSING Oxycontin are NOT taking the drug WHOLE….they are crushing it, removing the coating, snorting it, etc…. Plain and simple…. So you can’t even ding Purdue for that one…. Of course, the biggest problem of all, is that ADDICTION is a ‘tricky’ word. It is NOT to be immediately connotated with a NEGATIVE thing… Patients taking the drug for chronic pain ARE addicted to the drug… (if not, they wouldn’t have withdrawal), but they aren’t necessarily ABUSING it… It’s a difference that many folks don’t understand and a reason many patients go untreated for chronic pain in this country (stigma)

Comment by Brian (the pissed off tech) on 2007-07-25 17:22:13 -0700 #

Thank you,thank you,thank you!When i’m at work I feel like i’m the only person in the world with any common sense.Why don’t these fuckholes sue the people they got the shit from in the first place…

Comment by Carol on 2007-07-25 19:10:21 -0700 #

I watched the Youtube debate the other night. I would rank my pain as severe. May I have some Oxy please?

Comment by Chadwick on 2007-07-25 21:06:47 -0700 #

Adding to Mike, heroin has a higher addiction liability than standard morphine because it is lipid soluble and gets across the blood brain barrier that much quicker. Faster drug action = higher addiction liability (for addictive drugs anyways).
Once it’s in the brain, Heroin = Morphine.

Comment by Pharmacy Mike on 2007-07-25 23:18:47 -0700 #

Good post. You echo my sentiments exactly.
What’s really messed up is that thanks to dumbass drug addicts and scumbag lawyers, Purdue gets screwed for actually making a GOOD drug. Oxycontin is a good drug. It does exactly what it is intended to do (RELIEVE CHRONIC PAIN), and it does it well.
Moreover, how could doctor’s not know Oxycontin would be addictive??? Are they that fucking stupid? It’s OXYCODONE!!!! Of course it’s potentially addictive. There should be no way that a doctor could be convinced that oxycontin is far less habit forming than any other form of Oxycodone… I don’t care how big the drug rep’s tits were.

Comment by The Ole’ Apothecary on 2007-07-26 16:30:09 -0700 #

Anyone remember Bendectin, the prescription remedy for pregnancy nausea that had been on the market for 50 years? It contained an antihistamine and pyridoxine. In the early 1980s, lawsuits involving alleged birth defects caused the product’s price to skyrocket to $2 a tablet; then, it just went off the market, probably no longer defendable in court.

Comment by Drugmanrx on 2007-07-26 22:08:37 -0700 #

In reply to Mike and Chadwick, I believe what the angry pharmacist was referring to is the HISTORY of heroin. Many years ago it was used commonly in children’s cough syrups and was even use to treat addiction to morphine (until it was discovered that heroin is converted to morphine in the liver) This was common until heroin was banned from sale in the US in 1924 (made a CI) So yeah, heroin is considered more addictive than morphine but it wasn’t always considered thus. I guess you can call that irony.

Comment by eddie armstrong on 2007-07-27 09:40:47 -0700 #

agree with all the above–but the ‘form’ doesn’t matter–it’s all ‘addictive’ due to the ‘dependence’ it causes, withdrawal still occurs…and i have ‘assisted’ 2 people off of the ‘govts’ drug methadone…the other products cause much less severe symptoms…the clinics just keep ’em addicted IMO,
no one holds a weapon to the people who abuse drugs OR food, they stuff their own pieholes…’you play, you pay…and most good docs and rph’s i know damn sure know the diff between a ‘chronic’ pain patient and a seeker!!! just my $.02 !!

Comment by JAXFIVE on 2007-07-27 17:18:40 -0700 #

Thank you soo much for this rant!! Obviously all C-IIs have a potential for addiction and/or dependency, which is why they are C-IIs. Irrespective of which one is more addictive, the fact that junkies can procure this medicine ILLEGALLY thus commiting a crime–a felonly– and then have the nerve to sue is disgusting!!
“OH POOR ME, when Johnny DrugDealer sold me those (insert street slang here) for 80 bucks a pill, and I crushed and snorted it, I had no idea that I would get addicted or DIE!” So, then as that crackhead emerges from the his/her dungeon/home–aka Mom’s basement–he/she has an epiphany! We can sue…. everyone (manufacturer, MD, pharmacy, and pharmacist)! It truly pisses me off. Once again, no one takes responsibilty for his or her own actions nor do they expect others to do so(as shown by the mother of the 18 year old–or maybe she just jumped on the cash train as it was passing by!)
Preach on!

Comment by Chadwick on 2007-07-28 16:40:28 -0700 #

I know it was on the history, and I do know a bit about it (Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, if I remember correctly…) My class on drug addiction had a big section on the history of heroin and cocaine.
I was just adding to Mike’s comment, not necessarily on the main article.

Comment by Auspharm Student on 2007-07-29 18:17:55 -0700 #

FYI a physiology textbook of mine (Human Anatomy and Physiology – Marieb 4th ed) which was published in 2004 has a 2 pages article on oxycontin abuse p 424-5. Just a little proof of this being a well documented problem for several years at least.

Comment by karen on 2007-08-08 16:05:47 -0700 #

HELP!!! my best friends daughter and my husbands brother are both addicted to oxycotin. can they get off this shit…. Ever? the brother and his girlfried came to our our to detox (discusting loosers)they said after a week they were good as new. i think that is Bullshit. taking family’s money and conning family members. he’s a 38 year old adult. i need some answers . drug addicts are forever lyers.

Comment by exaddict on 2007-08-29 23:39:12 -0700 #

Karen, there is hope. I was addicted to Heroin for 6 years. I’ve been clean for 10 years now and run a very successful company.
You must remember that drug addicts ARE lyers, but, not forever, just while they are on drugs.
You need to employ tough love, the only way they will get off drugs is to hit bottom. Everyones bottom is different, in my case it was living in a storage shed, and stealing food. It got to the point where I would spend an entire day “working” just to get a $40 bag of heroin.
I finally gave up, I literally could not take it anymore, and went into a 6 month program, half way house, etc, etc.
The only way to get clean is to hit bottom and give in. You can help by not enabling them to use, do not provide food, clothing, money, shelter, etc for them. Give them the cold shoulder, just as my parents gave me. It will hurt you to do this, but, time heals.
Last saturday, I was on the 18th hole playing golf with my father and it started to rain. I looked at my $15,000 watch and wondered if it would break, since I just got it. It then remembered just how far I’d come. I looked over at my dad, and his matching watch I bought him on fathers day, and smiled. He smiled back, probably having no clue why.
Time heals, it took me a full year to get back to normal sleep, without drug dreams, etc. It also took a lot of prayer and a lot of hard work. I had no help, I started out with 9 cents in my pocket, thats all I had left when I left the storage shed in Arizona behind.
There is no such thing as a one week fix, believe me, I tried that at least 6 or 7 times, and was banned from a number of detox centers.
People think that just because they are taking Oxycontin (which used to be called percodan when I was using, I think), they are ok, well, they’re not. In the end, they will lose everything. Without fail, perhaps their very lives in some cases. The quicker you can intervene by calling everyone in the family and starting the “tough love” scenario, the quicker they will hit bottom. Believe me on this, my father wouldn’t even speak to me, I stole from my own family, I lied to everyone. When they cut off support and I was on my own, I fell quickly, literally, within 9 months of being totally cut off, I was clean.
I can’t really explain how it happened in fine detail. It just happened. It was a combination of, no showers, living in a storage shed for $25 a month, stealing everything I needed, getting arrested, being totally worn out at the end of the day after spending the whole day seeking drugs, etc. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was in hell, and I wanted out. There is only so much a human can take before they break. I’m an extremely stubborn person which is why I probably lasted as long as I did. I faught and faught, but, in the end, I gave in.
After being clean for around a year, and having a steady job, I started “slowly” earning my family’s trust back. This process has been going on ever since. Now 10 years later, we’re closer than ever and I have a booming business, all thanks to tough love and God.
There are many parts of my recovery that I’m leaving out since everyones experience will be different. But, just watch the downward spiral, soon jobs will be lost, houses forclosed on, credit destroyed, it’s only a matter of time. The quicker the better! I really mean that, do not hesitate. I’m involved in financially supporting a number of groups for addicted kids, unfortately, another just passed away a month ago. It is devestating to those who work with these kids, and it is for me as well, but, in a lot of cases, I see family members “enabling” their sons/daughters to use drugs. I know it’s hard to shun away family, but, if it saves their lives, then it must be done.
If they are clean for 6 months, there is hope. Literally, for Heroin, Morphone, Oxycontin, etc, it does take that long to beat the psychological addiction. I’m speaking from personal experience.
Then after recovery, they will have to learn to live normal lives again, that took me 3 years. Thats a whole other story, but, it’s amazing how behaviors learned during addiction will hold on longer than the addiction itself. Anger management, outbursts, childish behavior, are all included in the list of things that must be overcome afterwards.
I hope this post gives you hope. It is possible to get free. Plus, once your free, you never never want to go back, especially if you have lived in the hell that I lived in. It was so bad, I’d rather die than go back. It’s amazing what 120 degree weather in a 5×5 metal box will do to a man, really takes away your will to continue. Those memories are always with me and forunately I have a wonderful lady to share them with. I still to this day have some nightmares, but, no longer have using dreams. Only nightmares of what once was.

Comment by Chris on 2008-03-06 19:01:57 -0800 #

Hi,
I agree with you somewhat in that SOME inexperienced doctors are responsible for the Oxycontin problem. However, a significant proportion of oxycontin now abused is purchased on the street, and not prescribed by doctors.
All opioid medication has the potential to be abused; the different long acting opioids bind the mu / kappa and delta opioid receptors with different affinity. This explains the difference in their abuse potential. Further complicating matters is the fact that everyone’s brain chemistry is different and everyone has a different psychological susceptibility to opioid addiction. Obviously, it would be extremely unwise to prescribe an IV drug user Oxycontin; if a doctor uses their clinical instincts appropriately , then this medication can be used effectively with little risk of addiction.
Unfortunately, doctors sometimes do not appropriately assess a patient’s opioid risk level before prescribing a medication such as oxycontin, and this is where the trouble starts. I don’t think lipid solubility or the first pass effect has much to do with the abuse potential of the opioids.
Chris.

Comment by Bdoon on 2008-09-05 14:10:58 -0700 #

All
I had 2 surgeries (new knee and hip) . My GP , a young woman , took over my pain med prescriptions. I went from 25 mg of Percocet a day 3 weeks after the last surgery to 350 mg of oxycontin a day a year later…sounds like it should have been the other way around?
My GP would prescribe whatever I asked for. I was not getting high or selling the drugs but I had tried to stop using them once and got horribly sick. I have 22 years of sobriety thru AA (which my GP knew) so I know about chemical withdrawals. I kept asking for the drugs because I feared withdrawal. Admittedly I still had pain (still do…they want to redo my knee) but no where near enough to justify all those narcotics.
I began to lose it….extreme anxiety, feelings of impending doom etc. My GP, when I told her, just prescribed me Lexapro. Eventually I got suicidal…as a traffic engineer I figured out how to step in front of a tractor trailer so the insurance company could not deny payoff to my son .
All I can say is a few days before the final act a light went on in my head…”maybe it is the drugs”. I had told the GP what was happening a month previously but all she did was send me to some “big-shot pain doc in DC who I could not get an appointment with for 2 months.
I “fired” the GP and went to a drug program. The doc there saved my life. He took me off the painkillers and put me on suboxone (also addictive but does not really affect my mind or make me suicidal). He is keeping me on the suboxone because of my knee pain (I want to get off it though). However I feel so much better. I returned all the oxycontin back to the GP because I did not anyone speculating on what happened to them (about a months supply…350 mg …times 28 days). However the GP would not talk to me which really bothered me because I really liked her.
Funny , when I went to the drug program I expected all these junkies and crackheads to be there but almost half the folks there were people who got started on drugs because of physician prescriptions. I do not have a problem with doctors prescribing pain killers but if they “make” addicts they should take responsibility for “unmaking” them. I even thought about suing the GP to get back all the money I spent for the drug proghram but my AA sponsor told me to drop it….he said it was part of a valuable lesson …that just because someone seems to care about you and has an advanced degree doesn’t mean they really care about you or know what the hell they are doing.
I only wish my parmacists ,who obviously I got to know very well , had intervened….but I guess they are part of the same system as my GP. I still do not understand why the hell my GP did not stop this…she is a very popular doc and sure as hell does not need to prescribe drugs to keep patients.

Comment by Lost-in-Time on 2009-07-03 18:46:20 -0700 #

I know its been a long while since update on this site. I like to add, I`m sure a lot of people read this and agree. This is how I was addicted to OXY, I took as prescribed for over 6 months, OXY 80MG one time a day, So at 10 am, i would take 1, then over the months, I would start feeling more pain earlier. Then I take 2nd one at 2 PM, then I would tell DOC, listen the one Pill is not cutting it no more, so they double the dose, then 2 pills a day for a few months, then the pills only lasted a few hours. after a year and 4 months, the Docs says, I need to cut you off, I think this is becoming addicting, and you need to get off of it. No more precipitation, then only a day later after i took my last pill, I was in Hell, the pain, withdrawals, and I just wanted to just blow my brains out. I called the doctor, he said go to the emergency room, there is nothing he can do, I need to get off of it.
ER gave me 20 percs and sent me home. 2 weeks of throwing up, pain of withdrawals still carried on. I was in bed for over 2 weeks, in tears every night. I called a friend and asked him to get me something, and was able to find OXY 80 on the street, $30.00 a pill. I got a few hundred bucks worth, was normal again, and I told doctor this is wrong, i can’t believe this, he said just cut cold turkey, and just get through it.

that was the year 2001, I have been trying to find a solution for many years. No place to turn to. Im self employed, so i can`t spend 30 days in rehab, and every doctor treated me as a addicted looking for painkillers. I only took Oxy to be normal, not get high, not buzzed, only just to function. To be normal I had to spend 2-3,000.00 a month. at 30.00 to 40.00 a pill. It has nothing to do with say no or I was an idiot, or even a abuser, I have become addicted and there is no fix.

5 weeks ago, I finally found a doctor, I am now on suboxone, I am on the road to feeling again, I`m actually feeling again, looking forward to the day. its been over 8 years. and average of $200,000 in pills.

So, what did I do wrong ? Do I have a right to say, listen the medicine has destroyed my life, and lost everything because of it ?

The pain of getting off OXYCOTIN, is more sever than getting off Heroin, I have asked many people.

What is the answer ?

Comment by tyler on 2010-09-13 03:24:55 -0700 #

oxycodone is not worth it……

My name is Tyler David Cote i am 19 years of age i have been addictided to OXYCODONE since i was 16 it has ruined my life
i have no true friends, my family problems are difficult but in my mind i ignore them and drift towards the drugs as
an answer to my problems, but it deff is not worth it……
my life use to be good i thought i had everything i could ever want i played sports i was healthy i actually felt
good about myself… i started my freshman year thinking the most i could have ever wished for such as good grades, college
there was so many things that i wanted to do i made it throught my freshman year of varsity soccer and fucked my life up
this is the documentry of my life and what i have went through to get where i am today after you read this, you will
second guess drugs trust me, growing up as a kid, parents teachers, and more are always preaching about not doing drugs
and in reality that is what gets the young mind thinking about everything if you are like me your mind wonders i have
so much goin on in my head it sometimes gets to be a little much im not gonna lie, anyways back to the middle of my freshman
year i was doing good i had a 3.8 GPA i thought everything was goin good! thats untill i felt that i had to look up to
my upper classman, and started partying, yeah you think partying isn’t all that bad and its not if you can control it
but i cant, i started drinking all the time, skipping class, missin school, just so i could get drunk with the older
kids, at that time i thought i had the world in the palm of my hands, but in reality the world had me in its hands
the encourgment of my peers drove me i liked being the center of attition and i that i was i had alot of friends i
was chill with everyone and there mothers, but as i kept driving further and further away from school the better it got
and thats what i really thought when there is no one telling you that it is a dumb mistake what your doing, that wasnt
the case i have everyone cheerin me on keg stand, chug that beer, take that shot, and sure enought i did and as this was
goin on my grades were slippin right beneith my feet, i never really thought all that much about it, but my grades had
slipped so bad that i was unable to do the one thing i loved and that i thought was gonna get me a scholarship and
which it would of i messed my soccer career up, i had family, teachers, coachs, all pissed at me but still at this time
i was makin friends gettin messed up and livin the dream so i THOUGHT!
By my sophmore year i had a 1.8 gpa not even hight enought to graduate, that is horrible i never thought i
would let myself come to this and mess my schooling up but i did, and you think by this time i would relize that i
was messing up, i didnt i kept goin partying havin fun, one night a bunch of my friends were goin to gainsville fl,
to go to a college party bein a sophmore in high school i thought i was such a hot shot, a couple hours before we
left we went over to a friends house, which was the worst mistake of my life there was a kid there with percocet 10 mg
i didnt know what they were at this time but i had one friend there which was telling me just to get one so i could take it
later that night, at first i was skeptical about it i barly even tryed pot then, this is where my life took the turn
and there was no reversing the effect of this, i got to the party that night before everyone got to the party my
friend told me to come in the bathroom really quick, i had no idea why? i asked what we were doin just me and him
in the bathroom he asked if i had every snorted any pills, which i answered to no iv never even took anything in my life
so he kinda smiled with a grin to it, but me being me i just went with it i didnt care i felt unstopeable i snorted a
rail of percocet straight to the dome, at first i was complain about the burnin sinsation but following soon after
was the greastest feeling of my life the relaxation of a pain killer this is where my life started to begin to go down
the drain, that same night i got so messed up on only god knows what and i really mean only god knows, i ended up in
my bed in inverness fl an hour and 15 min south of gainsville i woke up thinkin to myself that i was still in gainsville
but come to find out i was in my own bed wondering what happend i remembered tryin the drugs for the first time and
i wish i would have woke up and forgot about that also, i wasn’t to bad in the beggin i would take a couple hydrocodone or
percocet pills a day which wasn’t that bad i thought to myself, not knowing what it would bring to myself in the near future
my pill habbit started to grow by the week from 2 pills a day to 3 and up by this time it wasn’t that bad of a money
whise problems with getting the pills for 2 dollars a peice, but like clock work i kept doin the pills and school was
slippin throught my fingers and i didnt give a shit, i was more worried about getting high, then getting my high school
deploma, that was one of my last thought in my mind i always told myself that i could control it and quit if it got
to bad to where i didnt think i could control myself but all that did was tell myself a lie. i kept partying and hanggin out
with my same friends noone knew that i did pills if anything they would think i was drunk, i sometimes in the early parts
thought if i was making a mistake and the answer that i should have told myself was yes, but that didnt happen it just
got worst and worst by this time i was takin 10 hydrocode a day and to me being a highschool kid and havin the feeling
that i needed it almost everyday i started thinkin about how i was gonna pay for it because i knew i couldnt ask my
mom for that kind of money i knew she would catch on, so i thought back to the first one i bought and me being good with
numbers they started to flow throught my head like a caculator with my a smile of my face i was determinded that i
could by enought to sell some and make my habbit for free and thats where i wouldnt say no to anything but still
by this time hydrocode was probably the worst thing i had done or any of my friends i was the first of my friends to
start slippin and actin stupid, so i kept doing the low dose pills but at a high quanity of numbers, i felt like i
was superman that i could never overdose that i could take as much as i had before i fell asleep and it was the truth
as i got worst my friends started hearing rumors about me and pills and i started having people come up to me and ask if
i was doing pills but i always told myself that i would denie it till the end and i did and got away with it for about
a month and half and person after person started to find out about tyler cote and pills and that i was a fuck up
but as i got worse on the pills the worse my additude got i didnt give a flyin fuck about nothin, not what my parents
said, if a teacher would yell at me i would yell back i saw this change of person i started to relize it half way through my
sophmore year, thats when i met the girl of my dreams lauren fitzpatrick yeah everyone thought she was a bitch which
now a couple years down the rode she was but at the time i thought i was a stud datin a senior stayin the night, doin
things with her i did with no other girl, saying things to eachother that i thought i would say to my wife i fell in
love with this girl pretty fast and i knew what love was when i had this feeling i would do anything for that girl
just to make her happy, she would be a bitch sometimes but thats part of it we had a great like 4 or 5 months and then
her x boyfriend pasted away and caused her to go into a little bit of a mental stage of denile where she felt so
in love with a guy that was gone and could not let it go to this day she still cant, but i stuck in there a was there
for her though it all, at sometimes i felt really awkward but like i said she was that one girl that after you break up
you compare everygirl in the future to, after she got through her probation and and got her license back i saw a change
she started wantin to do things that she didnt before which didnt bother me, i stayed with her thought thick and thin,
then she moved to tampa, at first i was a little down but at the same time i knew it was the best for her, and i didn’t
mind driving an hour there and a hour back, i did it 4 to 5 times a week for the first month she moved up there just
so she wouldn’t have to sleep alone. i thought she was the one but after she started meeting people she started to drift
away and want to hang out with new people which i understood when she drove home just to talk to me i knew it was bad
she told me she wanted to be single and try to get her stuff together in the new town i took it hard, the first week
i was a wreck after that i start smokin pot and drinkin and went right back to the pills but it was a bad point in my
life, i found out that the person that i thought from the time i was a little baby was my dad really wasn’t at first
i didnt know what to think i felt that i had been lied to my hole life, in my head if they had lied about that for
so many years what else could be hid, at the same time this happend my step dad and my mother where going through
a divorce, it was a 17 year olds nightmare i had so many things going on all at once and not one of them were good
news to me, this drove me off the deep end i asked a close friend that i knew had expericed with oxycotin, if he could
get some i felt like they small dozed pills were not takin care of the pain so he introduced me to a OC 40 i did
half of it and felt really good then did the other half not to far behind i was in a hole nother place in my mind
i felt amazing i had no care in the world on it but i didnt really care for them something about them just didn’t keep
my attition so i started askin some dealers about some stronger pills, and which one got back to me and told me about
my worst nightmare the thing i am the most scared of the one pill that has runied the teen years of my life and this
was the pill the called ROXIES i asked him what the price of one of these went for when he told me 15 dollars for one i
kinda was skeptical about it but i had money and i good job makin good money so i got one, with this pill i noticed
i didnt have to lick the codine off of it and that it had a taste of no other when it went up my nose and straight
to my brain, i knew from that day that i would probably come addicted to them, which i thought might not be true but
sure enought it was the devil to me at first the habbit was not bad at all it was all recreational doing them here
and there but that soon led to addiction, i was unaware of what these pills where capiable of because out of all my friend
i was the first one of them to do it, not even a month went by of me doin maybe 1 to 2 a day to me 30 dollars was
alot a day i didnt know what i was doin, but i just kept working and makin all my money and kept doing the pills
as with the hydroconde the numbers of pills went up by weeks i felt that it wasnt enough and if i didnt have the money
to get what i wanted i would find it, but before these time i never thought i would end up spending over hundredthousand dollars
in pills in just a 3 year spand, i knew in my head that i liked these pills a little to much and i had close friends tryin
to talk me out of it, but talking to me was like talkin to a wall, i wouldnt listen to anyone if anything i would
do the total oppisite of whatever was told to me. my grades by this time were so bad i was harldly even going to school
anymore i was more worried about working to make money to get high, thats when i made the dumbest mistake of all
the one thing i always told my family and friends and the most important of all myself! i withdrawled from high school
and went over to a technical school to work at my own pase on the computer but, that made it even worse knowing that i
could come when i wanted and leave when i wanted i could harldy ever even stay in there for an hour, then i finally
just quit going all together and was more worried about workin and makin money and havin fun, when i was 17 i felt like
i was goin on 30 i was doing so much between working crazy hours, and then hanging out with my d boy friends gettin
drugs and helpin get rid of some and makin some free money, this was the point in my life where all my friends started
to quickly disapear but in my mind if they didnt like me cause of what i was doin i would tell em to go fuck them selfs
and with my brain going through these changes it was putting me on a little bit of flight risk to myself i would never
tell my mom or my grandparents anything about what i was doing for all they knew i was working crazy hours making
good ass money so they were happy for me, i knew if they were to ever find out with would kill them knowing that
i was on drugs, when i have a 40 year old aunt that has been addicited to drugs her whole life, she lost everything
including her kids just because of drugs, i was a good church going kid i highly believe in god i believe everything
happens for a reason, but i ask god all the time why this had to happen to me, i was a high spirted kid i could have
fun with anything, after bein on the pills for about 6 months and still keeping about the same tolarance all the way
through i felt a change in my brain i saw a physical appearence in my body, i was getting skinnier and lookin like i
had no life in be because i was always so intoxicated on pills my job ethic started to slip i started missing days
calling in just because i was being to lazy to get up, thats when i did another stupid mistake and put my 2 weeks in
at work they were disapointed i was employee of the month 2 months out of thousand employees, they didnt understand
why i told them i wanted to get my school back on track and which i told my self i did but telling yourself and
doing are 2 totatally diffrent things i found that i had a ton of free times on my hands now, and the 2 or 3 pills
a day were not enough having all the extra hours of free time seemed like it was aswsome i was having the time
of my life i had a good chunk of money in the bank, so i didnt have to worry about money problems but it dont take
that long to piss through money with no job and constently spending money on pills i knew it would eventually run
out, when it started to get close to it, i was introduced to the thing that killed my longs killed my physical body strengh
and for some reason i knew where i was probably was a bad idea to go there, i was introuduce to smoking oxycodone
30 mg at first i felt it was a waste but it didnt take long for me to feel that it was my natural religon i wouldnt
snort them anymore i loved the taste the smell and most of all the processe of how it was done, breaking off the
foil flatting it down usin a pen and a liter and i was straight i loved the high so much better and i felt that it
took less to get me going but all in realitly it wasnt after smokin for a little bit i started to do quite a few to
where i started to notice i was even getting bad and that was when my family started to ask me what was going on
why i was loosing weight, why i hardly ever eat, they started to notice that the high entergetic tyler that they knew
was disapearing in my own soul, it made it hard on me some times but getting high took all those thoughts away
i was in the best parts of my life so i thought, but all in actuality it was the worst, and the reason was because
i had so much money i was doing everything on my own and still taking care of all my own bills. but that didnt last
all to long i then thought that i could sell drugs and not have to work so i took a good amount of cash out of the
bank and invested into pills, coke, and weed, it was a good idea i was getting all my stuff for free untill the buddy
where i left all my shit got raited for his shit and i lost it all, this put me feeling so low i felt like i had
nothing left to live for i had no money for the first time i experienced my first withdrawl, i thought i was
honseltly dieing thats how much pain and aggraney i was in, killing myself felt that it would be better then having to
deal with it, but soon after my family and me had a heart to heart it really hurt me knowing the pain i was putting
them throught, i was in tears, they got me help but that only lasted 3 days i told the people i could do it on my own and
which i did but not following up on treatment is what put me back into a relapse and i tried one telling myself
that it wouldn’t be all that bad it would do anything, yeah right it started my brain back up on thinkin that my body
needed pills, this is when i got to the lowest lowest part in my life i really had no money, i had a little but not
near enough to even live on so i took that little bit of money and bought 10 roxies for 110 dollars and thats when
i figured out the game of hustlein pills it was like givin candy to a baby, i feel bad i showed 2 kids how to smoke
them and it was a really bad idea they thought it was the coolest thing in the world just like i did at first, not knowing
that they would end up showing almost everyone of my close friends how to do it. Before i knew it almost everyone
i knew was smoking roxies and all i could think to myself was how low of a peice of shit i was they were thankful
for it but i regret it so bad so many innocent kids messed theres lives up just like i did, but it grew to a greatness
that i couldnt believe there was kids doin pills that i never in my life would ever even see them do drugs and
thats hard to say about some people. i got so messed up on pills that i was so broke and in debt with a couple people
so i knew i had to do something to get back on top, thats when i started sellin off some stuff i regret it so bad
but i did it because pills were the most important thing to me at this time, i lost my relationship with my step dad
because i sold something he bought me, i had nothing to say to him and we havent talked since, i was a shaddy person
for a little while i got to the scummist i have ever let myself become i would do anything that i could for a fix
that was rediculouse i felt so so low that i laid in bed and cried i thought of myself of a junkie, i hated myself
death was the number 1 thing that ran through my head for a while i pray to god and thank him all the time that he
never let me bring myself to that, i always found a tiny bit of some kind of happyness to bring me out of the crazy
moods and give me something to look forward to and get me thinkin how dumb i am, i have talked to myself multiple times
telling myself that i need to quit pills i just always had a problem dealin with the pain once i found a way to get off
them i did it almost right after i found out about suboxne they were a gift from god to me it basically kept the
devil from turnin my insides out, i then moved in with my grandparents the first week of living there wasnt all that bad
they had so much high hope for me and so did i for myself i finshed school i got all my stuff back in order i did good
for about 3 weeks and i relapsed once again, i didnt wanna break my grandmothers heart so i tried my hardest to
play it off for a while that i didnt do pills, me knowing that i had them convinced gave me the satifaction of goin
to do one while sitting there smoking that pill, i must of had over a thousand thoughts going all in and out at once
i then got a job like 2 weeks later, i knew that it wasnt like my old job but it would pay all my bills and thats
all that matterd, they were happy with me and i was happy, but once agian my neglagence led me to think about a bad
idea and that was to figure out how i could make a decent amout of pills for free and still make all my reup money
i took my first paycheck and spent everything plut 40 dollars on 50 of them i flipped them and then got 100 and had
so many free pills that i constently would always have a peice of foil in my hand all the way through the night untill
i was so fucked up that i would pass out, my body got into a rutine that it thought i needed to be so messed up to pass out
this is all just a big blur of 3 years of my life and being addicted to roxies it has made me rely one the pills instead
of the other way around, i always have told myself you will make mistakes in lifes that is the only way you can ever learn
from your actions, another thing i will never ever regret anything i have ever did yeah the person i planned on seeing
today isnt what i expected but it has made me the man that i am today iv been through about everything from good to
worse most of the time worse, but i try not letting thigs get to me i hold alot of things in that i dont ever say
but its personal things that only i wanna know about myself,
The one thing i would go back in time and change would be the night i rode to gainsville and tried my first
pill if i never tried one and knew what they lead to now things might be diffrent but like i said im not gonna
complain about who i am today i know there is so much more time in life for me to figure out a permanent situation
for my life goals i cant wait to start school and get out of this town, citrus county has so many types of drugs in
it i just can not stay away from them they are around everywhere you go, anyone you see thats why you need to cut
everyone off you know, cut all ties if your ready to really quit then your really dont need that one person for
drugs or even as a friend he might reject for what you did but it will also limited the source of drugs
i wrote this little documentry one a short kinda summery of how my life has been i want people to read this and second guess
doing pills or anything at the time you think its cool but a couple years down the road its a drug addict move and
thats what you will be called you will lose intrest in everything you have ever loved, and if you love some one
it will honestly drive you away from them, there were so many things i missed out on in my teen years that i wish
i could have done, once you get hooked to a roxie there is no short term thing you will have an on going problem
with them for a while and if i can atleast stop someone by someone readin this that makes my day, i just know it
is not worth it, its so stupid you will lose yourself in it when you actually find yourself agian you wont even be able
to look your self in the mirror and not say what the fuck did you do to your self this is all personal experice comin
from a young kid with a tough couple years even for you people that are still on them never give up push through it
and the returns will be in your favor trust me on that, thats all about my story kids please dont do drugs have a fun
life enjoy it, it really dont last long at all before you know it your out of high school on your own and
makeing the best of life living the american dream sober, honestly life is amazing if you sit down and think about
it the high from just being a live and seeing what we have today compared to some places and people you would
second guess sayin anything about what you do trust me…. DONT DO DRUGS PLEASE!!!! iv been there you will regret it
i did after 40 pills in one day almost overdosein im really suprised i didnt well i probably did but i just slept it off
and woke back up later the next day

Comment by wilkum on 2011-01-07 14:07:34 -0800 #

i think this article is perfectly written. a company makes a product, it’s up to you on how you decide to use it or whether you buy from a dealer. once it’s shipped from the factory the company no longer has responsibility of how people use it, if you place warnings and advertise the warnings then you’ve done your part. i can’t sue the car company because i rear ended someone because my car went into a slide in the fresh rain. nor can i sue god for making it rain that day or the guy in front of me for being there. i screwed up and took my eye off the road for a second, that’s all it took to get into an accident that has dragged out over 6 months now because i had my prescriptions in my car with me on my way to a doctors appt. no one counted, no one ran sobriety tests on me. they just put me in hand cuffs and charged me with dui, not once asking me how the accident happened. i’ll be the first to admit i messed up. the ironic thing is i was seeing my rehab doc who has helped me since i was addicted to pain killers after having chiari 1 malformation. i was on my way to see my doc who makes sure i’m clean and i get charged with being fucked up, not whiplash, but fucked up because of my medications being in the car with me. i told my doctors i will not drive with my medications anymore. but that’s off track, the guys right everyone needs to take responsibility for their own affairs, no one put the straw in your hand and made you shave a pill down to the point of snorting it or gave you the foil and make you light it up so you could smoke the pill, you did it because you messed up somewhere down the line, it is the brains natural reaction to love opiates, so everyone should be aware of when you’re enjoying it more than it helps for your pain.

Comment by Tom on 2011-07-05 14:58:53 -0700 #

Speaking of Oxy. does anyone know if you take a 10 mg tablet of Oxycodone and have three or four drinks, are you putting yourself in danger? Such as the recent lethal mixture of the hockey player Derek Boogaard?

Comment by LogicBomb on 2012-01-30 14:43:31 -0800 #

Well Tom, everyone is different, but if you ask me…that combination doesn’t seem to dangerous. Then again, I spent years railing 600mg’s of Oxy’s up my nose, 30mg’s of Klonopin down my throat, and a bottle of Jack to wash it all down with…and that didn’t really seem to dangerous either.

The Angry Pharmacist
Author
The Angry Pharmacist
Started this site in 2005 out of frustration that pharmacy school does not prepare you for dealing with the ungrateful unwashed public. Was hugely popular until life called and I had to take a break. Now I try to provide low brow potty humor that applies to the pharmacy population at large. Except you clinical fucks, go play doctor with your white coats and snobby attitude.