The final chapter in the opioid crisis began without fanfare. In the summer of 2010, Purdue made a terse announcement. The old OxyContin was to be retired. It would be replaced with what the company called OxyContin OP. OP looked the same. It had the same ingredients. But unlike the previous version, it couldn’t be crushed into powder and snorted.2 It had the consistency of a gummy bear. The days when an addict could grind up one of Purdue’s pills and get twelve hours’ worth of opioid in one quick hit were over.
