OXYCOTIN

BigRon · 08-04-2006, 11:33 PM

OXYCODONE
(Trade Names: Tylox®, Percodan®, OxyContin®)

June 2006 DEA/OD/ODE

Introduction:

Oxycodone is a Schedule II narcotic analgesic and is widely used in clinical medicine. It is marketed either alone as controlled release (OxyContin®) and immediate release formulations (OxyIR®, OxyFast®), or in combination with other nonnarcotic analgesics such as aspirin (Percodan®) or acetaminophen (Percocet®). The introduction in 1996 of OxyContin®, commonly known on the street as OC, OX, Oxy, Oxycotton, Hillbilly heroin, and kicker, led to a marked escalation of its abuse as reported by drug abuse treatment centers, law enforcement personnel, and health care professionals. Although the diversion and abuse of OxyContin® appeared initially in the eastern US, it has now spread to the western US including Alaska and Hawaii. Oxycodone-related adverse health effects increased markedly in recent years. In 2004, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for marketing generic forms of controlled release oxycodone products.

Licit Uses:

Products containing oxycodone in combination with aspirin or acetaminophen are used for the relief of moderate to moderately severe pain. Oxycodone controlled-release tablets are prescribed for the management of moderate to severe pain when a continuous, around-the-clock analgesic is needed for an extended period of time. Oxycodone is a widely prescribed Schedule II narcotic in the US. Prescriptions for controlled released products including OxyContin® accounted for 7.33 million of the 38.1 million total prescriptions for oxycodone in 2005 (IMS Health™).

Chemistry/Pharmacology:

Oxycodone, [4,5-epoxy-14-hydroxy-3-methoxy-17-methyl-morphinan-6-one, dihydrohydroxycodeinone] is a semi-synthetic opioid agonist derived from thebaine, a constituent of opium. Oxycodone will test positive for an opiate in the available field test kits. Pharmacology of oxycodone is essentially similar to that of morphine, in all respects, including its abuse and dependence liabilities. Pharmacological effects include analgesia, sedation, euphoria, feelings of relaxation, respiratory depression, constipation, papillary constriction, and cough suppression. A 10 mg dose of orally-administered oxycodone is equivalent to a 10 mg dose of subcutaneously administered morphine as an analgesic in the normal population. Oxycodone’s behavioral effects can last up to 5 hours. The drug is most often administered orally. The controlled-release product, OxyContin®, has a longer duration of action (8-12 hours). As with most opiates, oxycodone abuse may lead to dependence and tolerance. Acute overdose of oxycodone can produce severe respiratory depression, skeletal muscle flaccidity, cold and clammy skin, reduction in blood pressure and heart rate, coma, respiratory arrest, and death.

Illicit Uses:

Oxycodone abuse has been a continuing problem in the US since the early 1960's. Oxycodone is abused for its euphoric effects. It is equipotent to morphine in relieving abstinence symptoms from chronic opiate (heroin, morphine) administration. For this reason, it is often used to alleviate or prevent the onset of opiate withdrawal by street users of heroin and methadone. The large amount of oxycodone (10 to 80 mg) present in controlled release formulations (OxyContin®) renders these products highly attractive to opioid abusers and doctor-shoppers. They are abused either as intact tablets or by crushing or chewing the tablet and then swallowing, snorting or injecting. Products containing oxycodone in combination with acetaminophen or aspirin are abused orally. Acetaminophen present in the combination products poses an additional risk of liver toxicity upon chronic abuse. According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, the estimated number of hospital emergency department mentions involving oxycodone remained stable prior to 1996, but increased about 6-fold from 3190 in 1996 to 22,397 in 2002. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, oxycodone was found in 5.4% (674) of the total drug-related deaths in Florida in 2004. Based on the toxicology reports, oxycodone was cited as a causative drug in 340 deaths. The manner of oxycodone deaths cited included accidental (64%), suicide (19%), natural (15%) and undetermined (2%).

User Population:

Every age-group has been affected by the relative prevalence of oxycodone availability and the perceived safety of oxycodone products by professionals. Sometimes seen as a "white-collar" addiction, oxycodone abuse has increased among all ethnic and economic groups.

Illicit Distribution:

Oxycodone-containing products are in tablet, capsule, and liquid forms. A variety of colors, markings, and packaging are available. The main sources of oxycodone on the street have been through forged prescriptions, professional diversion through unscrupulous pharmacists, doctors, and dentists, "doctor-shopping", and armed robberies and night break-ins of pharmacies and nursing homes. The diversion and abuse of OxyContin® has become a major public health problem in recent years. In 2004, 3.13 million people aged 12 or older used OxyContin® for nonmedical use at least once during their life time (NSDUH, 2004). According to reports from DEA field offices, oxycodone products sell at an average price of $1 per milligram, the 40 mg OxyContin® tablet being the most popular. According to the System to Retrieve Information from Drug Evidence, a Federal database for drug seizures, oxycodone seizures increased from 38 cases (51 drug exhibits) in 1998 to 221 cases (618 drug exhibits) in 2005. According to the National Forensic Laboratory Information System, annual drug cases for oxycodone expressed as a percent of the total narcotic analgesic cases accounted for over 30 percent during 2001

BigRon · 08-04-2006, 11:35 PM

And how to crush it to snort.

Quick summary: My experience in OxyContin Crushing outlined, some new
discoveries and some questions on improving my technique that may help
the group at large (or at least the Oxy snorters).

So I have become something of a connoisseur of OxyContin snorting.

In particular, I have been concentrating on refining the technique of
preparing OxyContin pills for nasal inhalation. My interest in the
subject follows the discovery that using finer powders for snorting
increases membrane absorption and thereby speeds the onset of
Oxycodone related Euphoria. The difference between finely ground
OxyContin and not-so-finely ground OxyContin is quite dramatic.

Consequently, I have experimented consistently with new and improved
methods of crushing, grinding, shaving and pulverizing OxyContin
pills. Finer powder really makes a difference. Try a taste test for
yourself. I doubt you will be disappointed, but then I am something
of a newborn purist on this topic and I find that OxyContin 20s finely
ground give as potent a high (if shorter lasting) than a 20 and a 10
not so attentively pulverized do.

Before recent experimentation I have been repeating the following
pattern:

1. Suck off the colored coating of an OxyContin pill. Generally,
sucking until the taste is bitter is seems to be a good method. It's
hard to see when the 10s have lost the coating completely but I think
the bitterness test seems to get most of it off. It's nasty at first
but quickly becomes a labor of love.

2. Cutting the pill into smaller pieces with a razor blade.

3. Crushing the pill on a countertop with a credit card or (in my
case) a frequent shopper card of a local supermarket chain. (No
indentations from embossed numbers to catch powder as might a standard
credit card).

4. Grinding the pill against the countertop with the card in a
circular motion until the resulting powder is fine enough for
pleasurable snorting.

While this works pretty well it still leaves a bit of "chunkiness" in
the resulting product.

As I am always trying to advance the art and science of OxyContin
snorting, this week I moved into the realm of Mortar and Pestle for
pulverizing and preparing OxyContin powder for snorting. This led to
some interesting discoveries.

Before I get into those, some background:

OxyContin contains Oxycodone Hydrochloride suspended in a time-release
"matrix" to facilitate 12 hour time release of the underlying
narcotic. According to one of the patents protecting OxyContin, the
time release matrix is effectively constructed from a
"pharmaceutically acceptable acrylic resin" along with a "binder."

Specifically, the tablets contain:

Ammonio methacrylate copolymer, the copolymer forming the bulk of the
time release matrix. structure. Basically, a plastic or waxlike
substance.

Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, ironically also the main ingredient in
"artificial tears."

Lactose, as a filler.

Magnesium stearate, as a lubricant.

Povidone, also, strangely, the redness relieving additive to eyedrops
(I wonder if Purdue is trying to keep addicts, their best customers,
from having red eyes. I almost want Ben Stein to be in OxyContin
commercials).

Red iron oxide (20 mg strength tablet only), for coloring.

Stearyl alcohol, also part of the time release matrix.

Talc, as a filler.

Titanium dioxide, A white pigment that also is used to color latex
hospital gloves, among many MANY other things.

Triacetin, a plasticizer, also used in the production of cigarette
filter tips.

And the general food pigments:

Yellow iron oxide (40 mg strength tablet only)
Yellow iron oxide with FD&C blue No.2 (80 mg strength tablet only)
FD&C blue No.2 (160 mg strength tablet only)

One more reason not to inject OxyContin. It's filled with plastics.

The result of the polymers and the Triacetin is that it is hard to
grind Oxy too finely. The polymers and related matrix material has a
waxy consistency and binds together when rolled or ground. If you
dissolve Oxy in boiling water and let the water cool, these waxy
plastics will actually float to the top. (I wonder about extractive
possibilities related to this effect). Consequently, there seems to
be a limit to how far you can grind the stuff down before you get waxy
balls of matrix "goo" that won't get much smaller no matter how hard
you crush.

This is particularly evident when you use a mortar and pestle. So
much so that I am beginning to think that using a mortar and pestle
actually causes some separation of the oxycodone (which seems to get
quite fine and crystalline) and the matrix material (which clings to
itself, the tip of the pestle and the bottom of the mortar). I
generally find waxy material at the bottom of the mortar and the end
of the pestle after a good grinding session when I dump out the really
fine dust (which I am sort of hoping is oxycodone, talc and other
non-matrix (read: non-plastic) material.

Questions:

A. Am I actually separating Oxycodone out of OxyContin? That would
be a thrill and it seems so as when sampling the waxy goop left over
it regularly lacks the bitter, biting taste that I associate with
oxycodone.

B. Is there a fairly simple way to purify OxyContin and extract the
oxycodone so I can compare (relatively) pure oxycodone to the finer
power that is the result of my crushing process? This would be a good
test for my procedure. (I was thinking cold water extraction but I
lack the knowledge to know how to get pure powder oxycodone out of the
resulting solution).

C. Many Mortar and Pestle instructions seem to indicate that using a
minute quantity of liquid (acetone, alcohol or water or such are all
suggested) facilitates the grinding process. I don't want to upset
the chemical composition of my oxycodone (obviously) so is this a good
idea? Would water or alcohol be better?

C. Are there decent powder screens or filters of a fine enough mesh
to filter out lager waxy goop and not-yet-ground enough parts of the
OxyContin pill so they can be given further attention in the Mortar?

What sort of particle size should I be looking for? Some
documentation on Mortar/Pestle use seems to hint that 3 micron (!!!?)
particles are possible.

Thanks in advance for your attention and help