Our children are dying from Oxycontin abuse.  As I write this my son is on his way to an emergency room for admission to a psychiatric hospital to address his addiction to it.  My son left home 6 weeks ago because I would not tolerate his drug use. I had no idea what drug he was abusing but wouldn't tolerate it in my home.  Today I found out he is addicted to Oxycontin.  He has been demonstrating extreme, uncharacteristic behavior.  He has totalled a car, stolen all my jewelry, and accessed my bank account without permission in the recent past.  He held a full time job up until 6 weeks ago when he was fired for failing a drug test.  I know my son is not the only person with this problem.  It is a nationwide problem.  According to the DEA over 1.9 million Americans are addicted to this drug.  We are losing the battle and this drug needs to come off the market completely.  I am only praying that I caught my son's addiction in time to save his life.  But Purdue Pharma can help prevent others from losing their lives to this drug by discontinuing this product NOW!  There are other, less harmful drugs that could be substituted for those who need a drug for pain relief.

This link is to a report from the DEA website entitled National Drug Threat Assessment 2010:

 http://www.justice.gov/ndic/pubs38/38661/38661p.pdf

The numbers in this report are shocking! The following is just one excerpt from that article:

The number of unintentional prescription opioid overdose deaths increased in 2006, following a trend that has been apparent since 2000. The overall rate of change from 2002 (5,547 deaths) through 2006 (11,001 deaths) was 98 percent...

YES 98%!!!