drugcrimedefender

Counterfeit Oxycontin

I've recently come across fake Oxycontin 80's which are actually repackaged diazepam.  The pills are marked CDN and look exactly like OXY 80's but are lab tested fakes.  The implications for sentencing are still being worked out but would be very interested in any practicioner feedback on this type of counterfeit drug.

From Wikipedia:

Diazepam marketed under brand names Valium, Stesolid, Diazemuls, Seduxen, Bosaurin, Diapam, Antenex, Ducene, Mogadon, Apozepam and Pax (South Africa))^[1] is a drug which is a benzodiazepine derivative. It possesses anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, sedative, skeletal muscle relaxant and amnestic properties. This makes it a useful drug for treating anxiety, insomnia, seizures, alcohol withdrawal, and muscle spasms. It is also used before certain medical procedures (such as endoscopies) to reduce tension and anxiety, and in some surgical procedures to induce amnesia.^[2][3]

. . .

Generally, diazepam is not used as a recreational drug as frequently as alprazolam or flunitrazepam.

Diazepam is often found as an adulterant in heroin.^[37] This may be because diazepam greatly amplifies the effects of opioids.

Sometimes diazepam is used by stimulant abusers to 'come down' and sleep and to help control the urge to binge^[38] and also by users of LSD and other hallucinogens to help ease their trip without unpleasant after-effects.^{[citation needed]}

Oxycontin Arrives in Mass.

Its hard to believe that a trend might actually move from rural to urban areas.  This story about oxycontin implies that oxycontin abuse is a recent phenomenon in the Boston area.  If so Maine and other rural states have been dealing with these pills for years. I would go out on a limb and anecdotally say that the majority of federal cases in Maine in the past several years have been pills and primarily oxycontin.  They don't call it "hillbilly heroin" for nothing.

From the Boston Globe:

BROCKTON, Mass. --A growing number of young adults experimenting with the powerful painkiller OxyContin are getting hooked on heroin, triggering a spike in drug overdoses, broken lives and pressure on emergency services south of Boston.

"It is alarming," Abington Police Chief David Majenski told The Enterprise newspaper. "We have made a tremendous amount of heroin arrests and it is not slowing down at all."

The link between OxyContin abuse by teens and addiction to heroin is tenacious. Several recovering addicts said they got "high" on OxyContin while in high school, got hooked, then turned to heroin when buying the painkiller on the street got too expensive, the newspaper reported Sunday.

At least 2,682 people were treated in emergency rooms for opioid-related abuse, dependency or poisoning between 2003 and 2005 in the region, according to the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy.

An examination of death certificates filed in 28 communities shows that 74 people have died of opiate-related overdoses, including heroin, between Jan. 1, 2004 and Aug. 31, 2006, the newspaper said, citing its examination of death certificates filed in 28 local communities.