Dealers, Family Biggest Sources of Illegal Prescription Painkillers

Study refutes notion Internet is major supplier of Oxycontin, other opiods.

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter
Friday, February 9, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

FRIDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Despite media reports of addicts getting prescription painkillers such as Oxycontin from the Internet, most of them are actually getting these drugs from family, friends or dealers, a new study finds.

A second study, which looked at the abuse of these drugs in the general population, found that more teenagers are getting their hands on these powerful medications.

"Illegal prescription pain medication use is a very complex, multi-faceted problem with many different sources," said Dr. J. David Haddox, who co-authored both studies.

A dentist and a physician, Haddox serves as vice president of Risk Management and Health Policy for Purdue Pharma. The Stamford, Conn.-based company makes OxyContin, a popular narcotic prescribed for the treatment of moderate to severe pain.

Other Purdue Pharma employees were involved in the two studies, which were presented Thursday at the American Academy of Pain Medicine in New Orleans.

In the first study, Haddox' team focused on more than 5,800 clinically diagnosed drug addicts whose primary drug of abuse was identified as an opioid analgesic.

All the patients were enrolled in a methadone treatment program at one of 69 centers in 33 states during 2005. Over 95 percent of the men and women were non-Hispanic white, and almost 57 percent were employed during the study period.

Questionnaires were administered to identify all drug source options accessed by the patients.

According to the researchers, almost 82 percent of the patients said they illegally obtained their prescription medications from a drug dealer. Just over 50 percent said friends or relatives were also a source, although no information was gathered regarding where those contacts originally got the drugs.

A little more than 30 percent said a doctor had prescribed them their opiates, although it was not clear if such prescriptions were obtained through trickery or collusion.

Emergency room visits were a source of the drugs for just under 14 percent, while theft constituted about 6 percent and faked prescriptions just under 3 percent.