Joe Deegan, the public policy chairman for West Virginia Addictions Specialists, said some people who become dependent on the drug actually need the prescription. Sullivan said others may decide to sell their prescription to make a quick dollar. Some patients have their routines of going to the emergency room and then a doctor's office to try to get OxyContin. They will go in for a legitimate problem and then sell the drug to an addict. When it comes to those who are addicted they will use any avenue they can to get it.
Addicts find the pill easy to abuse because of the ease with which the opiate can be extracted.
It is unfortunate that the compound is so easily altered to go from a long-acting drug to an immediate high. The rate patients and addicts get the drug from doctors is what Deegan said gives it a bad rap. OxyContin is a very powerful opiate and this state has dealt with abuse of opiates before. Doctors need to make it harder than it is to be abused. I think it has been inappropriately distributed to people without intractable pain.