Yes. Your whole post describes the situation in Germany too. Spot on.
There are many technologies now that are more advanced than film coated pills. I don’t know if any are on the market already.
Right. It should prevent the obstipation but after absorption immediately gets inactivated by liver enzymes (FPE). But as you said, if abused it prevents the rush of oxycodone into the CNS and therefore doesn’t provide the euphoria to the extent that heroin does. The rush is the culprit that differentiates addiction from dependence in opioids.
One of our profs actually hated oxycodone and always said “There’s no pill that can prevent the pain of life without serious side effects. It’s just a fairy tale.” I think he also called it the holy grail and cited countless studies who claimed to have found the non-dependency inducing opioid or the side effect free pain killer. Fun times.
Something like that didn’t exist in my life time in Germany. Especially not for „narcotics“ (translation) or controlled substances. Actually the only thing that gets prescribed for more than three months is the Anti baby pill, at least to my knowledge. Sometimes antipsychotics or antiepileptics get prescribed with 200 pills but only if the patient takes double or triple the normal dose. So also only circa 3 months.
I think opioids have definitely their value but must be prescribed with caution. One man came to me one day telling me he got hurt playing soccer, had surgery and the Doc prescribed him Tilidin (not classified as a narcotic in pill form with naloxone here, so no special control). He was furious and said “I took these as the doc said for 3 weeks and now I can’t stop! I’m felling like a fucking addict!”
He was not aware that this could happen. I think he didn’t know it was an opioid. Maybe it wasn’t even necessary.