Percocet, OxyContin prescriptions questioned

Questions were raised about prescriptions for OxyContin and Percocets during the Aboriginal Health Care: Governance and Leadership conference, held Oct. 27-28 in Thunder Bay.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Deputy Grand Chief Mike Metatawabin said he was “scared” when his daughter told him she had been prescribed Percocets after undergoing a Caesarean section during the recent birth of her baby.
“I’m taken aback,” Metatawabin said. “I can’t believe it, but at the same time a friend of mine earlier this summer had an incident too where he was hurt and they prescribed him percs. And he refused them.”
Metatawabin said he’s heard many stories where people have become addicted to prescription drugs such as Percocets and OxyContin after having the painkillers prescribed to them by doctors.
“Why do they authorize these doctors to prescribe them,” Metatawabin said. “It’s having a devastating impact, destroying communities, destroying the well-being of families. It’s shocking. I want to look into this. I want to know if there are alternatives.”
Metatawabin said prescription drug abuse is a serious problem within NAN territory.
“We have 35 fly-in communities where in some cases 80 per cent of the adult population are addicted,” Metatawabin said. “In one community the neglect of children is so high and so rampant.”
Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, chair of the conference and inaugural holder of the Nexen Chair in Aboriginal Leadership at the Banff Centre in Alberta, also described her daughter’s experience when she was prescribed OxyContin for an impacted wisdom tooth and eventually became addicted for about two years.
“The dentist gave her OxyContin and that was the beginning of an addiction,” Wesley-Esquimaux said. “Although it never pulled her down too far, the fact of the matter is that if you get addicted, it is quite a painful process to get off this stuff.”
Wesley-Esquimaux said one of the dangers of being addicted to OxyContin is it takes away all the pains from injuries, such as when her daughter was involved in a car accident.
“She didn’t know how much damage she had actually done to her neck in the car accident because she didn’t go to the doctor right away,” Wesley-Esquimaux said. “Now that she’s been clean for the last couple of years, she’s actually feeling it quite dramatically and now they don’t know what to do with her because they can’t really pinpoint where the damage is.”
Wesley-Esquimaux encourages people not to accept prescriptions for OxyContin or Percocets.
“You don’t know if you will be the one that has addictive tendencies and so gets hooked immediately,” Wesley-Esquimaux said. “If you are in pain or something else happens to you during the time you are on those drugs, you could do more extensive damage to your body and not even be aware of it because you can’t feel anything.”
Wesley-Esquimaux said her cousin was also prescribed OxyContin for a hockey injury but he refused to use them after taking the first pill.
“He took one and went back to his wife and said ‘take these and throw them away – they are too good,’” Wesley-Esquimaux said. “He said they make you feel euphoric and they can make you feel like you are on top of the world and you don’t feel any of those pains anymore.”