DOSE:	repeated	insufflated	Oxycodone	(ground / crushed)
	repeated	oral	Oxycodone	(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

165 lb

When I was sixteen years old I was in a car accident. Not wearing my seatbelt, I was slammed into the steering wheel, and for years afterwards I suffered with on and off pain in the left side my chest. One day in my freshmen year of college the pain became unbearable and I went to emergency room fearing I was having a heart attack. They told me I had a rare chest problem and prescribed me Lortab, which, at that time, meant nothing to me. I thought it was some kind of anti-inflammatory drug. I had been drinking and smoking marijuana since middle school but I had never gone past that with my drug usage.

When I first took the Lortab, I fell in love with prescription pain killers. I loved the feeling of complete relaxation and not having any pain in my chest. When I would smoke pot after taking a Lortab or Vicodin it would heighten the feeling greatly. My prescription ran out, so I began to buy painkillers illegally through various sources. I also began trying other kinds of prescription drugs including alprazolam (xanax), triazolam (Halcion), Diazepam (Valium), clonazepam (Klonopin) and a whole slew of others, although pain killers always remained my favorite.

Soon after first trying pills I discovered I could crush them up and snort them, which would give me a more immediate and intense rush. Some pills are not appropriate for this kind of use, as I found out with certain drugs like Darvocet, Ultram and Cyclobenziprine.

After trying other drugs like uppers and hallucinogens, like mushrooms and salvia (craziest drug I've ever experienced), I had my first taste of OxyContin. I had known what it was for quite some time, that it was oxycodone (same active ingredient as is in Percocet) which I had taken many times and was pretty much my favorite drug. Some friends of mine came across a large quantity of 20mg OCs and a couple bottles of morphine. With the help of a friend who was more versed in OC use than I was at the time, I learned how to remove the time-release coating and crush the pill into a fine powder. It looked like such a small amount compared to what I was use to. However, OxyContin is much, much more potent than Vicodin or Percocet. It was the feeling I had been looking for.

We would do lines then put water up afterwards to drip down the extra powder that wouldn't cross the membrane into the capillaries (flushing out). Snorting OC doesn't yield the uncomfortable burning sensation that other pain killers do that are also filled with acetaminophen or ibuprofen. The first line gives me an instant rush. Some people will sit back and close their eyes, but this initial burst of euphoria always made me energetic at first, causing me to walk around, talk to people, and smoke cigarettes.

OxyContin is like living in a dream world. Everything is slowed down, pleasant, happy. While I’m on it, nothing can bother me or upset me, I move through the motions of the day with a calm that I could never achieve in sobriety. It had quickly become my favorite drug.

Eventually the supply of free oxycontin ran out, and as I did with Lortab in the beginning, my friends and I turned to buying OC illegally on the street. Buying OC is not like scoring some bud or even other prescription drugs. There is an air of tension, suspicion, and fear especially when first making a connection with a dealer. My friends and I couldn't just buy it from other students like we did with other drugs, but had to go out into the public, and usually they came from older men, guys who also sold heroin, morphine and cocaine. In my experience, this is how most oxycontin makes it to the street. Older men and women (and sometimes REALLY old, I’m talking 80 and 90 year old citizens) who are prescribed OxyContin will fill their prescriptions for relatively cheap with insurance. Then they take them to a dealer, sell their whole bottle for 50 or 60 dollars, and head off with their money till their next refill.

The dealer then sells each pill (usually we bought 80mgs) at a huge markup rate (the standard price for a 20mg is 15 dollars, a 40mg, 30 dollars and an 80mg, 60 dollars...).The particular town I studied in made things worse. The DEA had a task force dedicated to getting dealers off the streets with a team of undercover agents posing as dealers and potential buyers. You had to be extremely careful who you were dealing with and where.

Back to the effects of OC itself. When I take OxyContin, I feel on top of the world, complete euphoria that can make the most mediocre and boring night into the time of my life. My friends and I would score, then sit around all night watching movies. There are a few downfalls. Some people get very nauseous (some of my friends would puke 7 or 8 times in one day while binging on OC, but would tell me they didn't really mind the puking, because as soon as its up, they felt amazing again instantly). I personally never had a problem with getting sick on it.

At high doses, its extremely hard to take a piss when I’m on OC. I would stand in front of the toilet for five, ten minutes at a time and nothing would come. Some people dislike the itchy feeling that comes with a moderate to high dose, but I personally enjoy it, because it feels great when I get someone to scratch it for you, almost orgasmic. Another downfall: when I go on a binge for a couple days or weeks, I do not feel like eating much at all. I would drink tons and tons of water and smoke countless cigarettes, but sometimes I've lost ten or fifteen pounds in a week from lack of real nourishment.

For a long time I decided against mixing OxyContin and any other drug other than marijuana. However, the summer after I first tried OC I quit smoking pot for unimportant reasons. One time I was offered a 40mg line (which is pretty big) after I had already gotten a good amount of beers in me. I was timid at first, but accepted the offer (not wanting to look like a pussy... which, by the way, is the most stupid reason for ever doing a drug). It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, and from then on I usually drank lightly while on OC.

Because OxyContin makes its way onto the street market differently from most non-prescription drugs, it is not always obtainable, which is probably what has saved me from ever developing a serious habit. I've had many many nights when my friends and I wanted to score badly, but I've never felt even a hint of a withdrawal symptom or any other sign of a real addiction. Some people I know chose to score for heroin when OC wasn't around, but I decided to stay away from H, mostly because of the stigma associated with it.

Increasing tolerance, however, is definitely fast and real when dealing with OC. When I first began using 15 or 20 mgs was enough to completely zone me out and put me on the nod. Within a few months, it took 50, 60, 70 mgs to attain that same feeling. I knew one person who got up to 200mgs in one day, enough to kill a first user twice or three times over, and wasn't even acting very inebriated at all, even while mixing with pot and alcohol. However, if one stops using even for a couple weeks, tolerance usually falls dramatically.

I've had a few scary experiences with OxyContin. There have been nights when I've been on a high dose and felt my respiration slowing down. I would stay up and try to occupy myself and wait out the high for fear of my respiration shutting down while I was asleep. Another time I had been doing lines all day, and was pushing around 100 or 110 milligrams total, when I started sweating profusely and my heart began speeding up dramatically and pounding hard in my chest. That was enough to stop me from using for about a month, until an 80mg was offered to me free of charge. Other times I've had close encounters with police officers and college officials while carrying some on me. Possession of OC is treated the same as possession of heroin, and it could potentially lead to up to 7 years in prison and an unlimited fine. This, clearly, is not worth it.

So, is it all worth it? I'm not sure. Personally, I feel the dangers are exaggerated in the media and other outlets. I've had long binges on benzodiazepines that have pulled me into real addiction very quickly, causing me to go into long periods of sickness and deep depression. Although I've used OC much more, I've never had this happen. Alcohol (in my opinion, the most dangerous drug) has caused me many more problems than OC, relationship problems, health failures, and risky and violent behavior. Because of a sweep of drug dealers in my home town where I'm living now, my normal sources have been shut down, and I've only gotten one 40mg pill in the last two months, and I wouldn't be crushed if I couldn't score for a long long time, although it still remains my favorite high.

I've seen people ruined by it and quickly moving on to heroin or morphine, and even choosing to melt down the OC and inject it. I cannot tell you how many nose bleeds I've had in the past few years and a plethora of other problems.

Exp Year: 2005	ExpID: 43668
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 25, 2007	Views: 63,113
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Oxycodone (176) : Various (28), Depression (15), Retrospective / Summary (11)