Oxycontin addiction in Ontario Canada, as in many other places, is increasing. According to reports by the Toronto Star in 2009, over $54m worth of the drug was prescribed in the previous year and it was supplied mainly to people in receipt of social security allowances. The concern is not only that people prescribed oxycontin might be abusing the drug but that the drug is also being retailed on the street to support oxycontin addiction in the province Ontario.
Oxycontin is also called oxycodone, oxy or oxycotton, and is often referred to as hillbilly heroin. Nearly five hundred deaths in five years have been ascribed to oxycontin addiction in Ontario, reported the Star. In 2009 oxycotton addiction in Ontario was encouraged by the fact that prescribing doctors had no online access to what other oxycontin prescriptions had been made out for a person and scrips were easily forged. At the time the Toronto Star report encouraged authorities to launch a probe into oxycontin addiction in Ontario.
This month, June 2010, Dr Paul Roumeliotis, Medical Officer of Health for Eastern Ontario has announced a conference in September 2010 to teach doctors and pharmacists about oxycontin addiction in Ontario. Danny Aikman, Deputy Chief of Police in Cornwall says that police are taking a pro-active approach to oxycontin addiction in Ontario and working closely with health authorities. Local health authorities report a waiting list for opioid detox, with over 20% of admissions due to prescription drugs. The problem of oxycontin addiction in Ontario is not helped by oxycontin being available on internet, supplied without prescription.
There are several private substance abuse treatment clinics in Ontario and neighbor provinces with the skill and expertise to deal with oxycontin addiction and other substance abuse, at the same time as the public health Withdrawal Management Services are calling out for more funding.
According to CBC news this year 2010, oxycontin has now overtaken “crack” as Ottawa’s number one illegal street drug of addiction. The company which manufactures oxycontin says that its product complies with the law and that it does all that is reasonable to bring the addictive properties of oxycontin to the attention of the users.
Where to from here? As one blogger has astutely observed – when oxycotton is gone, head’s will just go elsewhere to get a fix. Clearly the ultimate solution is to use holistic recovery programs which help change the habits and lifestyle of users. Holistic methods of treatment can reduce the number of addicts in Ontario and help to eliminate future substance abuse. Users need not only detox programs but full rehabilitation services such as the one offered by Narconon Trois-Rivieres, a bilingual drug rehab facility located only a few hours from Ontario between Quebec city an Montreal.
Whilst mainstream authorities are doubtless well intentioned, public funded help for oxycontin addictions in Ontario is limited. People at the lower end of the socio-economic “heap” really do need extensive education in more healthy and productive ways of living so that they no longer have low self esteem and a need to cover up painful negative feelings with drug or alcohol abuse.
Holistic methods are often seen as being subversive of the established “order” – and indeed they are – regardless of money and assets, raising a person’s self esteem will put them on top of the heap. Using holistic methods, oxycontin addiction in Ontario could become a thing of the past.
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