Zohydro: A New Addictive Drug?
Recently, many people have been protesting a new and powerful opioid painkiller: Zohydro. Many fear that Zohydro will be as addicting as Oxycontin and will be equally as abused. Even more concerning is that Zohydro is being manufactured by the same company that makes Vivitrol, which is a drug used to treat patients addicted to painkillers and/or alcohol. Some speculate on the financial profitability link between the two drugs being manufactured by the same company and are calling it suspicious. In essence, Alkermes (the company manufacturing the drugs) is creating an addictive drug while at the same time they are producing a medication that helps individuals stop taking the other drugs Alkermes is creating.
Zohydro is a new highly potent painkiller — an extended-release painkiller containing the already widely used opioid, hydrocodone. Designed to release painkilling medication into the body slowly over a 12-hour period, Zohydro is available in doses as high as 50 milligrams – five times the amount found in similar immediate-release hydrocodone pills. But, addiction experts, such as Dr. Dana Jane Saltzman, claim that the benefits of Zohydro do not outweigh the addictive tendencies. Because of its extremely high dosage and lack of abuse deterrents, many believe Zohydro could easily ignite another addiction epidemic – as well as a new wave of overdose deaths.
Dr. Saltzman was quoted in foxnews.com to say “A lot of these kids wouldn’t be addicted if [opioids] weren’t so readily available.” Saltzman further concludes that “given the amount of opioid abuse over the past few decades, the availability of a much more potent painkiller is just going to add to the growing problem. She argues that with no immediate need for Zohydro, the drug is just another byproduct of a painkiller-hungry society. She states, “We give out 84 percent of all the painkillers in the world, and 99 percent of the hydrocodone in the whole world. How they can justify that, and how our children are having their lives ruined?”
source: foxnews.com