I was in little pain so I didn't fill it.

My sister was hooked on this shit and Percodan. It led to her early death at 64 years.

My dentists always gave me hydrocodone instead (even after I had 11 teeth extracted from my lower jaw for dentures). I would need it for the first couple of days after I had teeth removed, but after the fourth or fifth pill I would stop taking them. I found myself getting too depressed if I stayed on hydrocodone more than a few days. The only time I received anything stronger was when I had my wisdom teeth removed and was given Halcion which left me in a semi-conscious state.

I've only seen one person on Oxycontin and will state that he was completely out of it while he using it. It seems appropriate only after some type of surgery, extreme emergency or extreme chronic pain. Prescribing it for something like a tooth extraction seems like overkill to me.

hydrocodone bitartrate and acetaminophen

I thought it was related to Oxycontin.

"Hydrocodone, also known as dihydrocodeinone, is a semi-synthetic opioid synthesized from codeine, one of the opioid alkaloids found in the opium poppy. It is a narcotic analgesic used orally for relief of moderate to severe pain, but also commonly taken in liquid form as an antitussive/cough suppressant."

"Oxycodone is a semisynthetic opioid synthesized from thebaine, an opioid alkaloid found in the Persian poppy, and one of the many alkaloids found in the opium poppy. It is a moderately potent opioid analgesic, generally indicated for relief of moderate to severe pain.[8] Oxycodone was developed in 1917 in Germany[9][10] as one of several semi-synthetic opioids in an attempt to improve on the existing opioids.[1]"

So you aren't far off. Both are highly addictive.

Hope your tooth aches are all gone!

but the usual dose of oxy is about 3x as strong as hydrocodone.

But please dont let moral panic over the so-called "drug crisis" keep those of us who require stronger pain management in those oft-shitty situations, from getting it.

are they suggesting that OxyContin will be needed with the chump in office?????

called FiercePharms.com that you can go on which will really open your eyes on the industry. There is a piece on this and how much money they are losing on the American market. So, to offset their loses, the manufacturer is planning on promoting it on the world markets instead. Addiction? They don't care.

It's all about profits and greed. Humanity has nothing to do with it.

Not even when I was in the ER screaming from the worst pain I've ever experienced.

I have since discovered some...umm, natural alternatives. It's very liberating to know that I won't have to go to an ER if I get another kidney stone, or something similarly painful.

or not. it's total BS; unless these people are going to pay my bills for the rest of my life, they shouldn't be able to stop me from getting necessary medicine that i need to function and survive. the constant hysteria, as in this OP, only makes it worse.

You should take an advil and buck it up, because with marijuana legalization taking off the DEA really needs a new public "zomg drugs" hysteria to justify their 20 billion dollar slice of the discretionary pie.

Which is really what all this shit is about, of course.

I've experienced that too, a couple of times. The problem is that TPTB are incapable of carrying out sensible and reasonable reforms in opiate prescribing, and instead swing wildly and mindlessly to the opposite extreme of denying pain control to people who genuinely need it.

This policy has been carried out with absolutely no thought to potential unintended consequences, hence the massive surge in heroin and fentanyl ODs, which they still end up blaming on pain medication. Well, who cares? At least it keeps the DEA employed.

I find it especially shameful that this is happening under a Democratic administration. I did alot of research into the current politics of pain management after my kidney stone experience, and based on what I've read on some chronic pain forums, some people in that community were desperate enough to vote for Trump over these barbaric policies. That is a really sad commentary on the degree to which these people have been thrown under the bus in this iteration of the War On Drugs.

Sorry for the babbling. I'm up too late. But yeah, the opioid hysteria sucks, and the DEA should be disbanded.

have dealt with people close to them suffering through addiction- because I have seen that, too.

But, honestly, my dad died young from nicotine, basically. Some of the worst ravages to anyone that I've witnessed, have come from alcohol. But the prohibition of either of those substances not only clearly wouldn't/doesn't work from a public policy perspective, it wouldn't solve the problem, either.

I think part of it is, there's a certain percentage of the population that is going to get addicted to something like opiates, period, if they come into contact with them. Just like some people will with alcohol. A good other percentage can use them as directed and not have a problem. So what's the answer- try and keep everyone away from them, always, because some folks will have a problem if they're ever prescribed something like oxycontin or vicodin?

Or do we re-jigger our entire approach to substance use, abuse and addiction to look at it from a new perspective, whether that includes honest, fact-based education, treatment on demand, harm reduction, what-have-you? (Not to mention the fact that many opiate addicts have had success with everything from kratom to marijuana, in terms of progressing past their addiction, but that fact doesn't gel with the "just say no" mindset which says all "drugz" are equal)

Because what we're doing isn't working.

And when we swing back to the denying pain control, as you put it, you not only drive the addicts to the black market, you drive legitimate pain patients, there, too.

http://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-heroin-opioid-prescription-addiction-treatment/

I make no secret, on this board, of my generally small-l libertarian views on the right of consenting adults to make their own choices about their own bodies, etc.- even bad ones. It can come off as insensitive to the concerns of people about things like addiction and overdoses, I'm sure.

And... if the prohibitionary approach, the one where we decide for other people what they should be "allowed" to put in their own bodies and bloodstreams- if it actually worked? Then maybe I would concede that folks promoting that long tried-and-failed mindset might have a point. But the thing is, it doesn't. So to my mind, it's long past time to start looking at these things differently, and if the price we pay for suffering people to get their pain adequately managed is that some other people will become addicted, the fact is some people were going to become addicted anyway, so maybe focus on helping those people through treatment or harm reduction rather than futilely trying to control the behavior of everyone else.

He has first hand experience with the drug