Our health care system is treating soft core addicts with the wrong medication!  Straight up—this is not partly truth and partly fiction. This Is all grounded in truth.  Treating soft core users with methadone to curb the withdrawal of OxyContin can often replace one addiction with another.

Methadone is an extremely powerful drug and users of opiates that take this medication to ease withdrawal often find they are required to withdraw from it as well.  

Manitoba is the only Province in Canada at this moment in time which does not cover the use of Buprenorphine or Suboxone. They are a replacement for methadone.

Its benefit - there is no addictive component to it and it works as well as methadone. The cost to those who cannot afford it is prohibitive. It is extremely expensive. Out of pocket costs  for 30, 2mg pills is approximately $100. It is time Manitoba gets in line with other provinces on this issue. When Manitoba makes this available through Pharmacare it can contribute to a large decrease in overdoses and often death from unmanaged use of methadone.

The other newer drug used to treat opiate withdrawal that is also so much safer that methadone is Suboxone. It is not covered by Pharmacare as well.. The cost: $41.37 for 3 day supply! Methadone is $19.64 for 3 day supply. Young people who are not hard core addicts and have just begun using Oxycontin as stated above are far better suited to either Buprenorphine or Suboxone.  There is no risk overdosing using those medications. With methadone the risk is high!

Opiate addiction is not a new revelation. It does not have the same stigmatism as other drugs simply because many of the opiates are produced legally by the pharmaceutical companies. Many senior citizens have huge issues with pain. They are being prescribed Oxycontin which is turning their life into a nightmare.
In closing may I say it is comforting to see the restrictions on the prescribing of OxyContin becoming firmer and equally as important those prescribing it for pain are becoming educated on its addictive properties?  I have been writing about this issue for almost 2 years now. 

Most individuals choose the first time or second time using Oxycontin. After that there is no choosing.  They are hooked!  

If any of you think otherwise have the chutzpa and communicate with me. I am only identifying a long timeline issue. There are many side bars to this story that will make the hairs on your arm stand in fear. And if they don’t we really must communicate.
 
Cheers & .05 % Beers.
Hart Peikoff