Study: Crackdown on Prescriptions Drove up Hep. C InfectionsBY: Charles Fain Lehman.
A key decision made to curb the opioid crisis not only made that situation worse, but also caused a surge in deadly hepatitis C infections, a new paper argues.
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Prior to reformulation, OxyContin was extremely popular in illicit markets because its timed release mechanism meant that it contained large quantities of oxycodone—substantially more than "all-at-once" pills. Users would crush the pill and extract the oxy within, getting a longer lasting and more potent high.
Amid a nationwide crackdown on prescription opioids under the Obama administration, the Food and Drug Administration gave Purdue permission to reformulate its flagship drug. The new version gelled up on crushing, leaving it useless. This, regulators thought, would help slow the increase in deaths then attributed to OxyContin.
Instead, users began switching from pills to injected heroin, with all of the dangers that entails. That includes infection with hepatitis C, which can be transferred by sharing improperly sanitized needles.
Never underestimate the law of unintended consequences.
And don't assume that an addict is going to quit just because you made his favorite drug impossible to get. They're quite likely to switch to something else, and in this case, that something else was more dangerous than what they were forced off of.
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