1996: The Start of Appalachia’s OxyContin Addiction

Starting in 1996, Purdue Pharma introduced OxyContin to Appalachia for the first time. The drug was heavily marketed and promoted very frequently. It was supposed to be used as a tool for helping the miners deal with chronic pain that resulted from the strenuous labor that mining demands. A big factor in the choice to market and promote OxyContin so aggressively was the fact that it was deemed non-addictive at first. Purdue Pharma claimed that the possibility of addiction was “less than one percent”. Due to this false claim and false advertising, doctors began to prescribe the drug the frequently to those who needed it. As time went on, doctors became more lenient to those they prescribed OxyContin to. Patients who did not need a painkiller of that degree were getting prescribed OxyContin. Eventually, the truth came out that OxyContin was highly addictive despite the original claim that it was nearly impossible to get addicted to it. Even though doctors found out that the drug was highly addictive, they continued to overprescribe the drug to those who did not really need it. <a href="https://medium.com/spring-2018-introduction-to-appalachian-studies/1996-the-start-of-appalachias-oxycontin-addiction-b086f409a402">Website</a>