https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/386/lynch.shtml

A Massachusetts congressman has introduced a bill to ban Oxycontin nationwide. Although the opioid pain reliever has become a success for its manufacturer, Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, with millions of prescriptions annually and sales of $1.8 billion last year, it has also proved popular with non-medicinal opioid users. Crime, addiction, and deaths linked to abuse of Oxycontin have made it a target for drug abuse-fighting politicians.

Oxyphobia is in full bloom in Massachusetts. Last week, the Chronicle reported on threats in the state legislature to ban the popular pain reliever across the Bay State. Just days after the home-state solons toyed with the notion in heated hearings with Purdue Pharma reps, Congressman Stephen Lynch (D-South Boston) introduced H.R. 2195, "to provide for the withdrawal of the drug OxyContin from the commercial market."

The bill provides a number of reasons for the ban – citing its alleged addictiveness, its widespread abuse, and the fact that the DEA has specifically targeted the drug -- but for Lynch, the bottom line is that "the burdens of this drug to the public health outweigh its potential therapeutic benefits, and given that alternative pain medicines and methods are widely available, OxyContin should be banned."

The notion is not going over well with patients, medical professionals, or Purdue Pharma.

"We absolutely share a concern that the illegal use of this drug is a serious problem in the Boston area," said Oxycontin's maker in a statement. "It is not, however, a national problem. If you take it off the market because it is being abused, you're really allowing criminals to dictate health care policy."

Patients at the New England Medical Center praised the drug to a reporter from the Boston Herald, as did staff. "It has revolutionized comfort for many of my patients," said Marybeth Singer, a nurse practitioner there who works with cancer patients. "It is a very useful drug when used appropriately," she said.

The Boston Herald wasn't impressed either. In a May 7 editorial, the Herald observed that "the scourge of alcoholism has destroyed many more lives than OxyContin" and sarcastically suggested that Lynch "propose bringing back Prohibition, too."

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