Monday, September 27, 2010

OxyContin cure often worse than ailment

From the Calgary Herald:
Sometimes armed, and always desperate, Cory Alan Sharlow terrorized pharmacists across the city during a series of brazen robberies last fall.

His pattern was wellplanned and predictable: Steal a car. Rob a pharmacist. Make his getaway.

His motive was less complex, but always the same: to get the OxyContin his body craved.

The plan worked so well he robbed 10 pharmacies in a month, until he was caught and later jailed.

Police and addictions experts say Sharlow's case typifies the danger and desperation of addicts driven to get their fix of OxyContin, the brand name given an opioid painkiller that dispenses the drug, oxycodone, through time release. When crushed, the high dosage is released at once, producing a euphoric feeling.

"They find themselves cheating, lying, exaggerating (and) violating their own sense of ethics with the end of satisfying the habit," says Dr. David Hodgins of the University of Calgary's addictive behaviours lab. ...more

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