The OxyContin disaster

The Ottawa Citizen (Canada)
Friday, February 24, 2012

OxycontinWho is going to clean up the mess OxyContin has left behind in Ontario? Health Minister Deb Matthews' move to delist the addictive prescription painkiller from the provincial drug benefits program - just as a new, more difficult to abuse, formulation is coming on the market - is a start. But it is also a stark admission of the health system's failure to properly control a drug that was once aggressively marketed as something of a miracle cure for pain - and is depended on by many who need it - but has unleashed an addiction nightmare, especially in Ontario's North.