Saskatchewan’s health minister doesn’t like it, but says the province will live with a federal decision to allow generic versions of the drug oxycontin on the market.
Health minister Dustin Duncan says unless the generic version of the highly addictive pain killer is made tamper-proof it will not be covered under the provincial drug plan.
“There is the ability and the prevalence in society of misusing and abusing oxycontin and it has devastating effects for families and communities where that’s the case.”
The drug is creating major problems on some First Nations particularly in Ontario where addiction rates on some northern reserves are as high as 80%.
In Saskatchewan oxycontin is not covered under the drug plan, however a tamper proof version of the drug called oxy-neo is.