• Megan Ogilvie - Health Reporter • "The narcotic painkiller OxyContin will soon be pulled from pharmacy shelves across the country, and 'addiction experts' warn the move will spark a public health crisis in Northern Ontario where thousands of people in remote communities face involuntary and potentially dangerous withdrawal from the addictive drug."Oh my gawd... some evil corporation is refusing to send a crucial medication to aboriginal communities?
Well... not exactly.
"Purdue Pharma, the company that manufacturers OxyContin, is set to replace the controversial medication with a new formulation of the drug called OxyNEO at the end of February. The new drug is formulated in such a way that it is more difficult to crush, and therefore less likely to be abused through injecting or snorting."So, experts notwithstanding... what Purdue Pharma is actually gonna do is make it harder for people to abuse oxycontin to get high. If you merely ingest the medication as prescribed... the world will surely keep on turning.
That still leaves the question though, of white corporate North America making scurrilous... indeed racist... inferences about addiction in our aborigin... wait a minute...
"Among the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, or NAN, which represents 49 First Nation communities in Northern Ontario, at least half of residents are addicted to OxyContin, said Grand Chief Stan Beardy."Uh, Stan... are you sure? I mean, if I said something like that, I'd have Peter Mansbridge poundin' on my front door demanding an explanation.
"'In some communities, it’s as high as 70 to 80 per cent of people addicted to OxyContin, including kids as young as 9 years old to people as old 65,' Beardy said."And there's a problem with, what... trying to remedy that situation?
Thank goodness for the Toronto Star and their never-ending grab bag of experts.
**********
UPDATE: CBC Radio piles on
Ditzy talkin' head (who refers to the new non-crushable pill as Oxy-Neon) interviews a Deputy Grand Chief who claims that addicts in the community will be suffering withdrawal en-mass.
Apparently these folks will all choose to quit cold-turkey rather than simply swallow the new pills.
Dumb bunny interviewer characterises this situation as a "failure of Canadian healthcare."
**********
LAST WORD: A soft, fuzzy-bunny world
More special rights for special people. It ain't just the MSM... the federal bureaucracy buys in.
I miss the meritocracy.