NEW PAINKILLER COULD TURN PEOPLE INTO PILL POPPERS!

Drug companies are cooking up a potent new painkiller that New York narcs and addiction experts say could unleash the worst pill-popping plague since Oxycontin hit the streets.

A single extended-release capsule will contain up to 10 times the amount of hydrocodone — a potentially addictive opiate — as the lowest-dose Vicodin pill.

One manufacturer on the verge of asking the feds to approve a formulation it calls Zohydro says it’s “safer and more convenient” for treatment of chronic pain.

But law enforcement officials and drug experts worry it will open a new front in the war against prescription drug abuse.

“This has the potential to be Oxycontin all over again,” said Lewis Nelson, an emergency medicine doctor and toxicologist at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Oxycontin is a time-released version of pure oxycodone that’s been blamed for turning the elderly, housewives and suburban teens into addicts.

If Zohydro is approved, it would be the first time pure hydrocodone is sold at the corner pharmacy. Right now, the drug is only paired with acetaminophen under the brand name Vicodin, the second-most abused drug in the country.

Bridget Brennan, the city’s special narcotics prosecutor, questions the effort to market a new pain pill against the backdrop of deadly pharmacy murders and soaring overdose numbers.

“It’s hard to understand why we need yet another powerful opiate drug available,” she said. “I think the focus should be on non-addictive painkillers.”

Pain-med cases make up 15% of her office’s workload, up from 3% five years ago. Painkiller poisoning cases have risen 20% in four years.

When the Oxycontin problem spiraled out of control, the manufacturer created a new tamper-proof version that was supposed to prevent snorting and injecting.

But it didn’t dampen demand: a 30mg pill of Oxycontin still sells for $20 to $30 on the street, according to Brennan’s office.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has seen a three-fold increase in pharmaceutical investigations in the state since 2009, particularly on Long Island and Staten Island.

Sen Chuck Schumer (D-New York) wrote to the FDA Sunday urging the agency not to approve the drug without stringent controls to prevent abuse.

“It’s tremendously concerning that at the same time policy makers and law enforcement professionals are waging a war on the growing prescription drug crisis, new and more powerful super-drugs could well be on their way, flooding the market,” he said. “The FDA needs to grab the reins and slow down the stampede to introduce these powerful narcotics.”

Wilbert Plummer, acting special agent in charge in New York, expects the new drug will wind up on his radar screen.

Addicts build up tolerance to their usual drug of choice and “are always looking for the new pill,” he said. And there are always “rogue doctors” willing to write a prescription.

“The addictive properties of this drug are going to be really strong,” said Dr. Jeffrey Parsons, a psychology professor and addiction expert at Hunter College.

“You are going to have little old ladies who are in significant pain who get hooked on this and start using it even when they don’t need it.”

Zogenix, which developed Zohydro, plans to submit an application to the FDA sometime after March, and it could be available early next year.

It said a pure hydrocodone pill is needed by patients with round-the-clock pain because the acetaminophen in Vicodin can be toxic to the liver.

While admitting no pill is abuse-proof, it argued that Zohydro will be more tightly regulated than Vicodin and refills will be harder to get.

But Matthew Neebe, director of Brentwood Mental Health Programs for the drug-treatment center Phoenix House, said the ingenuity of an addict or dealer cannot be underestimated.

“There are a lots of creative people out there who will get their hands on these pills,” he said.

SOURCE