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OxyContin Fast Facts
What is it?A trade name for a prescription painkiller. What
does it look like?
It comes in tablet form, as a 10-milligram (mg), 20 mg, 40 mg, or 80 mg tablet. The tablets vary in color and size according to dosage. The tablets are imprinted with the letters ‘OC’ on one side and the number of milligrams on the opposite side. How is it abused?
Abusers either chew or
crush the tablets – ridding the medication of its built-in time-release safety
factor. Crushed tablets can be snorted or dissolved in water and injected. Who abuses it?People of all ages and in all parts of the country abuse OxyContin. The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that nearly one-million U. S. residents aged 12 and older used OxyContin non-medically at least once in their lifetime. And four percent of high school seniors in the nation abused it at least once in the past year, according to the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Survey. What are the risks?Abusers risk developing tolerance for the drug. Long-term abuse can lead to physical dependence and addiction. Taking a large dose risks severe respiratory depression that can lead to death. Inexperienced and new users are at particular risk, because they may be unaware of what constitutes a large dose and have not developed a tolerance for the drug. In addition, OxyContin abusers who inject the drug expose themselves to additional risks, including contracting HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), hepatitis B and C, and other blood-borne viruses. |
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Prairie View Prevention Services, Inc.
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