How to Spot Fake RP 7.5/325, 5/325 (Percocet, Norco, Endocet, Lortab)

What is Percocet Acetaminophen and Oxycodone Hydrochloride?

The white round pill with imprint R P 5 325 has been identified as Acetaminophen and Oxycodone Hydrochloride 325 mg / 5 mg. It is supplied by Rhodes Pharmaceuticals L.P. The 7.5/325 pill contains Acetaminophen and Oxycodone Hydrochloride 325 mg / 7.5 mg. Oxycodone is an opioid pain medication, sometimes called a narcotic. Acetaminophen is a less potent pain reliever that increases the effects of oxycodone. Acetaminophen and oxycodone is a combination medicine used to relieve moderate to severe pain. Acetaminophen and oxycodone may also be used for purposes not listed in this medication guide. Other examples of this medication include; Norco 5/325, Endocet 5/325, Lortab 5/3 and and their 7.5 combination others

 

What should I discuss with my healthcare provider before taking this medication?

You should not use this medicine if you are allergic to acetaminophen or oxycodone, or if you have:

 

• severe asthma or breathing problems; or

 

• a blockage in your stomach or intestines.

 

Tell your doctor if you have ever had:

 

• liver disease;

 

• a drug or alcohol addiction;

 

• kidney disease;

 

• a head injury or seizures;

 

• urination problems; or

 

• problems with your thyroid, pancreas, or gallbladder.

If you use opioid medicine while you are pregnant, your baby could become dependent on the drug. This can cause life-threatening withdrawal symptoms in the baby after it is born. Babies born dependent on opioids may need medical treatment for several weeks. Do not breast-feed. This medicine can pass into breast milk and cause drowsiness, breathing problems, or death in a nursing baby.

 

How should I take these medications?

Follow all directions on your prescription label. Never take this medicine in larger amounts, or for longer than prescribed. An overdose can damage your liver or cause death. Tell your doctor if the medicine seems to stop working as well in relieving your pain.

Never share this medicine with another person, especially someone with a history of drug abuse or addiction. MISUSE CAN CAUSE ADDICTION, OVERDOSE, OR DEATH. Keep the medicine in a place where others cannot get to it. Selling or giving away acetaminophen and oxycodone is against the law.

Measure liquid medicine carefully. Use the dosing syringe provided, or use a medicine dose-measuring device (not a kitchen spoon).

If you need surgery or medical tests, tell the doctor ahead of time that you are using this medicine.

You should not stop using this medicine suddenly. Follow your doctor’s instructions about tapering your dose.

Store at room temperature away from moisture and heat. Keep track of your medicine. You should be aware if anyone is using it improperly or without a prescription.

Do not keep leftover opioid medication. Just one dose can cause death in someone using this medicine accidentally or improperly. Ask your pharmacist where to locate a drug take-back disposal program. If there is no take-back program, flush the unused medicine down the toilet.

 

What happens if I miss a dose ?

Since this medicine is used for pain, you are not likely to miss a dose. Skip any missed dose if it is almost time for your next dose. Do not use two doses at one time.

 

What happens if I overdose on Percocet 5 325?

Seek emergency medical attention or call the Poison Help line at 1-800-222-1222. An overdose of acetaminophen and oxycodone can be fatal. The first signs of an acetaminophen overdose include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, sweating, and confusion or weakness. Later symptoms may include pain in your upper stomach, dark urine, and yellowing of your skin or the whites of your eyes. Overdose can also cause severe muscle weakness, pinpoint pupils, very slow breathing, extreme drowsiness, or coma.

 

What should I avoid while taking Percocet 5 325?

Avoid driving or operating machinery until you know how this medicine will affect you. Dizziness or drowsiness can cause falls, accidents, or severe injuries.

Do not drink alcohol. Dangerous side effects or death could occur.

Ask a doctor or pharmacist before using any other medicine that may contain acetaminophen (sometimes abbreviated as APAP). Taking certain medications together can lead to a fatal overdose.

 

What are the possible side effects of acetaminophen and oxycodone?

Get emergency medical help if you have signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat. Opioid medicine can slow or stop your breathing, and death may occur. A person caring for you should seek emergency medical attention if you have slow breathing with long pauses, blue colored lips, or if you are hard to wake up.

In rare cases, acetaminophen may cause a severe skin reaction that can be fatal. This could occur even if you have taken acetaminophen in the past and had no reaction. Stop taking this medicine and call your doctor right away if you have skin redness or a rash that spreads and causes blistering and peeling.

 

Call your doctor at once if you have:

 

• noisy breathing, sighing, shallow breathing;

 

• a light-headed feeling, like you might pass out;

 

• weakness, tiredness, fever, unusual bruising or bleeding;

 

• confusion, unusual thoughts or behavior;

 

• problems with urination;

 

• liver problems –nausea, upper stomach pain, tiredness, loss of appetite, dark urine, clay-colored stools, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes); or

 

• low cortisol levels — nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, dizziness, worsening tiredness or weakness.

 

Seek medical attention right away if you have symptoms of serotonin syndrome, such as: agitation, hallucinations, fever, sweating, shivering, fast heart rate, muscle stiffness, twitching, loss of coordination, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.

Serious side effects may be more likely to occur in older adults and those who are overweight, malnourished, or debilitated.

Long-term use of opioid medication may affect fertility (ability to have children) in men or women. It is not known whether opioid effects on fertility are permanent.

 

Common side effects include:

 

• dizziness, drowsiness, feeling tired;

 

• feelings of extreme happiness or sadness;

 

• nausea, vomiting, stomach pain;

 

• constipation; or

 

This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects.

 

What other drugs will affect the drug?

You may have breathing problems or withdrawal symptoms if you start or stop taking certain other medicines. Tell your doctor if you also use an antibiotic, antifungal medication, heart or blood pressure medication, seizure medication, or medicine to treat HIV or hepatitis C.

Opioid medication can interact with many other drugs and cause dangerous side effects or death. Be sure your doctor knows if you also use:

 

• cold or allergy medicines, bronchodilator asthma/COPD medication, or a diuretic (“water pill”);

 

• medicines for motion sickness, irritable bowel syndrome, or overactive bladder;

 

• other narcotic medications –opioid pain medicine or prescription cough medicine;

 

• a sedative like Valium –diazepam, alprazolam, lorazepam, Xanax, Klonopin, Versed, and others;

 

• drugs that make you sleepy or slow your breathing –a sleeping pill, muscle relaxer, medicine to treat mood disorders or mental illness;

 

• drugs that affect serotonin levels in your body –a stimulant, or medicine for depression, Parkinson’s disease, migraine headaches, serious infections, or nausea and vomiting.

This list is not complete. Other drugs may affect acetaminophen and oxycodone, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal products. Not all possible interactions are listed here.

 

How to Spot Fake Percocet (Norco, Endocet, Lortab)

Most of the counterfeit Percocet 5/325 or  7.5/325 pills in global circulation contain fentanyl. The counterfeit pills are manufactured in clandestine laboratories and look very similar to an actual Percocet pill. Fentanyl is an extremely powerful opioid analgesic that is 100 times more potent than morphine. The fentanyl is also manufactured in clandestine laboratories. Miniscule amounts of the fentanyl are then mixed with some other substance and then formed into the counterfeit Percocet pills using a tablet press.

Fentanyl is so potent that 2 milligrams is considered a lethal dose. To put that in perspective, there are 28.3 grams in an ounce, 1 milligram is 1/1000th of a gram. The scales that drug traffickers use cannot weight these minute amounts, so the drug traffickers guess how much fentanyl to add to their pills. This results in a great number of these counterfeit pills containing lethal doses of fentanyl. The following tips and test will serve as a to help you identify a real 5/325 or  7.5/325 Percocet

 

Visual inspection

Visual inspection as stated by the World Health Organization (WHO) (1999) still remains the first step in identifying potential fake drug irrespective of the analytical methods used. This is because such observation serves as a lead to identifying fake products even in the absence of the knowledge of the physical characteristics of a genuine drug product. You are expected to examine carefully both the package and its content before purchase or use.

 

Visual inspection of the Package

You should;

 

• Examine the package and check if it appears suspicious or different from what you previously know.

 

• Check if the security seal has been tampered with by looking for breaks or tears in the sealing tape and seals.

 

• Look for unusual fonts, font sizes, print color, and spelling errors.

 

• Check the legibility of the information on both the primary and secondary packages.

 

• Check if the batch number, expiry date and manufacturer’s address on the secondary package are the same with that on the primary package.

 

• Check if the manufacturer’s address is traceable, that is, if it contains the exact location of the company and not just the country address.

 

• Check if the registration number (FDA number as the case is for products marketed or sold in United States) is properly printed or if it appears to be tampered with.

 

Visual inspection of the Dosage form

At this stage, you are meant to Check for differences in the physical appearance (color uniformity, size, shape, consistency etc.) of the drug. As stated by WHO, commonly encountered physical defects that should be looked out for in tablets include:

Excessive powder and/or pieces of tablets at the bottom of the container (from abraded, crushed or broken tablets);

 

Cracks or chips in the tablets, swelling, mottling, discoloration, fusion of tablets;

 

Appearance of crystal on the walls of the container or on the tablet.

 

Hardening or softening, cracking, swelling, mottling or discoloration of capsule shell should also be looked out for.

 

Also check the organoleptic properties of the dosage form if you have been using the medication.

 

Source

The source of the drug also determines if you are buying a fake or a real Percocet 5/325 or  7.5/325. Buying fake Percocet real 5/325 or  7.5/325 exposes you to a lot of risk. Filling your prescription in a reputable pharmacy greatly reduces your chances of buying fake drugs while buying from illiterate and unqualified vendors who hawk drugs in buses, motor parks and in the streets increases your chances of buying fake drugs.

 

Price

This is another way of identifying a real Percocet 5/325 or  7.5/325. If the price is far cheaper than what is expected, then you have to think twice. However, this may not always be true especially for some products (fake innovator/generic brands) which may be sold at the same price as the genuine one.  Percocet cost $10-$15 on the street compared with $6 legal retail outlets.

 

Unexpected side effect

Counterfeit Percocet 5/325 or  7.5/325 most of the time contains substances other than the appropriate Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API). They may contain incorrect substances, improper dosage or hazardous substances like Fentanyl which produce unusual side effects, worsening medical condition after taking it. The medication should be stopped once any of the above is noticed.

 

Fentanyl Test

Fentanyl testing is one of the most reliable ways of telling a fake from a real Percocet 5/325  or  7.5/325. A new University of Maryland study found Fentanyl tops the list of drugs detected in overdose patients at two Baltimore hospital emergency departments. The finding suggests that hospitals and medical systems throughout the United States consider adding Fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid linked to most fatal overdoses in Maryland, to their routine drug testing panels. That is the conclusion of researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) at the University of Maryland, College Park. Currently, fentanyl is not routinely included in these panels nationwide. The  procedure described below can help law enforcement agents and public health officials to pick out  fentanyl laced powders and pills.

 

Steps

Crush pill or pour powder into a clean bowl or test tube

 

Add ¼ inch of clean water to the powder in the tube or bowl and mix properly

 

Dip the end of the test strip into the residue for 15 seconds, remove, and lay on a clean flat surface

 

Check strip after 5 minutes, (manufacturer’s directions) results may be visible sooner: One line means fentanyl (positive) Two lines means no fentanyl (negative) * If the strip does not either have one or two lines, the test is invalid. SEE: Blue B707 Xanax Bars