By George P. Hassett

State Rep. Denise Provost, D-Somerville, has filed a bill that would make the criminal penalties for possession and distribution of oxycontin equal to the laws regulating heroin. In advocating for oxycontin’s change from a class B to a class A drug Provost told state lawmakers about the drug’s deadly effect in Somerville neighborhoods.

“Oxycontin is insidious. It has wreaked terrible havoc in my community. It was particularly insidious because it did not have the stigma or penalties attached to it that heroin did yet it is the functional equivalent,” she said. And Provost’s proposal would make it the legal equivalent also.

Oxycontin’s legacy can be seen in the strong grip heroin currently has over many Massachusetts communities, including Somerville. Many of today’s heroin addicts were initially introduced to the high of opiates through oxycontin beginning in 2000 and 2001 when the drug was first touted as a miracle painkiller able to relieve extreme pain because of it’s time release coating.

The communities surrounding Boston were hit hardest. Provost said teens and young adults in Somerville experienced an oxycontin epidemic.

“Users discovered they could circumvent the pill’s time release capability by crushing it and then snorting it. Instead of the drug’s effects being released over time they got an instant heroin-like high,” she said.

And, she said, the effect on Somerville was devastating. Provost said trips to wakes
and funerals for young men in their teens and early 20’s became too common and addicts once hooked on oxycontin shifted to heroin for a cheaper high.

“When oxycontin became difficult to get either because it was too expensive or unavailable users shifted to heroin going further down the road of damage and Addiction,” she said.

Provost said her proposal to up the drug’s designation to class A status would “impress
upon potential users and sellers the seriousness of the drug and signal that the Commonwealth will  treat this drug as an equivalent to heroin,‚Äù she said.