Do You Know the Signs of Heroin Use? There has been a dramatic increase within the past 25 years of prescriptions of oxycodone recommended for long-term use in patients due to changes in government recommendations as well as aggressive marketing via pharmaceutical companies. Not everyone can get their hands on that type of prescription or has a doctor who will prescribe oxycodone prescriptions. The closest a person can reach to the same type of effects produced by oxycodone is heroin. However, heroin is much stronger and it would take higher doses of opioid pain medications to reach the same effects …