Article: MS Contin

MS Contin® is a time-released formulation of morphine, usually taken every eight hours for chronic pain. It is the brand name for morphine sulfate marketed by Purdue Pharma.

It is available in tablet and liquid formulas in doses of 15mg, 30mg, 60mg, 100mg and 200mg. Due to its strength, it's typically prescribed to cancer patients and victims of severe but non-cognitive-damaging trauma.

Like its more potent relative OxyContin, MS Contin has been the subject of pharmacy robberies.[1] It is considered particularly dangerous to recreational drug users who are unaware that "contin" is a pharmacutical industry buzzword for "time-release" or "continuous," because such users are likely to crush and insufflate the pills, which contain a time-release mechanism; insufflation delivers the entire dose of the pill at once instead of gradually, as with the time-release mechanism. This leads to a high rate of overdose among such users.

MS Contin is a DEA Schedule II substance in the United States. Alternative formulations made and marketed by other pharmacutical companies include Ligand's Avinza® and Faulding Laboratories' Kadian®.