The dope on oxycontin & "pain doctors" in the NYT

This subject has a strong personal resonance with me; my hometown was featured in a Time article on March 28, 2005, detailing the epidemic of opoid abuse in our rural mining town. [It was not well-received, although accurate.] I have lost friends to overdosing on oxycodone, and I spent a lot of time with a lot of "pillheads" growing up (as we called them then). Just this past week, there was a shooting of a cop about one mile from where I live after a string of armed robberies involving pillheads (they were caught, of course). There is a long article in the NYT on an OD who got locked up after one of his patients died while taking...

...wait for it -- 5 80 mg OXYCONTINS IN 12 HOURS!!!!

Use of this magnitude is almost beyond my comprehension. I knew hardcore IV users who would not be able to do 400 mg a day. They could've tested this guys' wastewater for metabolites and found levels high enough to suspect a "safe house" operation was there when it was really just him...

These sorts of problems have been known for years, with an article in Time in 2001. I generally don't trust "pain management specialists", but perhaps my cynicism is simply a reflection of my personal knowledge of how many people use those doctors as avenues to addiction supply. I have first-hand experience with some of these sorts of medical experts, and by and large, my impressions are heavily tilted towards negative. They knew early on how bad oxy's were, but they kept dispensing them anyway, in part because of kickbacks. Purdue Pharma has to pay a huge amount of money ($600M) for its complicity in hiding the absurdly-addictive nature of the drug. Ignore shills for "big pharma" like Shandeek Kauship and the Cato Institute who try to pretend that all is well with that.

I strongly disagree with complete libertarians with respect to drug policy who think that controlling substances is unnecessary/illegal on the part of the government, especially in light of drugs like Oxycontin(TM). That said, the legalization of marijuana is necessary, even if it may cause a slowdown of brain processing speed. I don't even smoke it (honest, not since 1999), but it is definitely far past the time to de-criminalize it for a plethora of reasons.