New painkiller Opana being abused in rural places

Rural America now has another prescription drug to worry about: Opana, an opioid painkiller containing oxymorphone, typically prescribed for chronic back, osteoarthritis or cancer pain. It's become the drug of choice in Scott County, Indiana, where most of the nine overdose deaths this year involved Opana, reports Mary Wisniewski of Reuters. About half the deaths referred to the coroner in the county near Louisville, Ky., last year were Opana overdoses. Police in the area say the rise of Opana abuse started when Oxycontin was reformulated to be harder to snort or inject in 2010.

Abuse of Opana can be deadly because it's more potent per milligram than Oxycontin. Wisniewski reports the drug's street names are "stop signs, the O bomb, and new blues," and it's typically crushed and snorted or injected to defeat its "extended release" design. Opana manufacturer Endo Pharmaceuticals is reformulating Opana to make it harder to crush and turn "gooey" when water is added, which makes it hard to abuse. But the old form is still available. Police in Southern Indiana say they are "consumed" by Opana-related crime. In the northern part of the state, there have been 11 pharmacy robberies in Fort Wayne since Endo announced the reformulation.

This isn't just an Indiana problem: Opana overdose deaths in Florida rose 109 percent in one year, up to 493, according to Jim Hall, director of a drug abuse center at Nova Southeastern University. Tennessee has seen an increase in Opana abuse, too. Wisniewski reports some users and dealers get Opana from "pill-mills," or pain clinics that sell drugs for cash. Others get them from doctors or buy them from seniors "looking to supplement a fixed income." (Read more)