[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 9352-9353]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         OXYCONTIN IS ADDICTIVE

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                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 12, 2004

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address a long-standing and 
unfortunately ever growing problem affecting our society, prescription 
drug abuse and addiction. Specifically, I would like to discuss the 
scourge that has been caused by the prescription drug OxyContin. 
OxyContin has caused countless deaths from overdose and toxicity. 
Equally important, however, OxyContin has caused thousands of 
individuals lawfully prescribed the drug to become addicted, causing a 
wide variety of destructiveness and in many instances ruining the lives 
of innocent people.
  OxyContin is a schedule II narcotic pain medication as defined by the 
Controlled Substances Act. This is the most dangerous designation of 
legal, as opposed to illegal, prescription drugs under the Controlled 
Substances Act of 1970. It is in the same class as morphine. 
Unfortunately for the American public, the manufacturers and 
distributors of OxyContin have made concerted, intentional efforts to 
make this dangerous drug anything but ``controlled''.
  Purdue Pharma is the manufacturer of OxyContin. This drug was 
promoted with the assistance of Abbott Laboratories. Over the last 6 
years OxyContin has amassed sales of more than ten billion dollars as a 
result of an overly aggressive, inappropriate and, unfortunately for 
our citizens, highly effective marketing plan.
  This drug was marketed to a broad range of physicians who, according 
to Purdue Pharma's own internal documents, were uneducated or at least 
undereducated on the use of opioids like oxycodone and morphine. Family 
practitioners in rural areas, gynecologists, sports medicine 
practitioners and even dentists were instructed by Purdue and Abbott 
representatives that they could prescribe this morphine-like drug for 
even moderate pain without the slightest concern of addiction. They 
were told to prescribe the drug in very high doses so long as the pain 
persisted. The most widely prescribed dose of OxyContin contains 20 
milligrams of oxycodone. Taking one pill of 20 mg OxyContin would be 
the equivalent of taking 4 Percocets, a very strong narcotic pain 
medication, as well. The marketing plan and the assertions about the 
safety of the drug were based on false information. OxyContin can be 
addictive to prescription patients.
  In fact, countless numbers of innocent pain patients have become 
addicted to OxyContin. They were told both by the company and unwitting 
physicians that this drug was not addictive. That was not true. There 
is no support for the theory that the OxyContin is not addictive. 
Moreover, the manufacturers and promoters of this dangerous drug have 
conspicuously failed to study the addictiveness of this drug over the 
last 6, very prosperous years. It is only logical that the results of 
those studies would only undermine their very persuasive sales claims 
that this drug was not addictive.
  Purdue will most certainly tout their concern for the pain patient, 
claiming that their drug provides pain relief to the masses of 
unfortunate sufferers of chronic pain. I am not persuaded nor will I be 
deceived by this argument. I am truly concerned for the pain patient. 
It is not my purpose to take good medications away from pain patients, 
but it is also not my intent to permit American companies to mislead 
the pain patients as to the safety and effectiveness of pain 
medication. Misinformation about the addictiveness of this drug did not 
help the pain patient. Instead, it took advantage of the very condition 
that this drug was supposed to help.

[[Page 9353]]

  I call upon Congress to convene hearings on the question of how this 
public health menace came to be, who is responsible, what was told to 
the American public and to healthcare professionals by the 
manufacturer, and what we, the Congress, can do to prevent tragedies 
like this from repeating themselves in the future.

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