Oxycodone is made in six strengths across two release types, and the same color appears at more than one dose. A green round oxycodone tablet is either 15 mg immediate release or 80 mg extended release.
Color is useful inside one manufacturer's line and misleading across the whole drug. This page names the actual imprints and what each one is.
What Oxycodone Is
Oxycodone is an opioid prescribed for moderate to severe pain. It binds to opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord and changes how pain signals are processed.
It is sold on its own and also combined with acetaminophen, where it goes by names including Percocet. This page covers oxycodone by itself. The combination tablets carry different imprints and different daily limits.
Oxycodone is a Schedule II controlled substance under federal law, the same category as morphine and hydrocodone combination products.
Immediate Release and Extended Release Are Not the Same Tablet
Immediate-release oxycodone acts within about an hour and is prescribed for short-term or breakthrough pain. Extended-release oxycodone, sold as OxyContin and as generic oxycodone hydrochloride ER, is built to release the dose slowly across many hours for around-the-clock pain.
They are not interchangeable in either direction. An extended-release tablet carries a larger total dose than an immediate-release tablet of the same physical size, and it is designed to be swallowed whole.
This is the distinction that the colors blur, which is the next section.
The Immediate-Release Imprints
One manufacturer runs a K series. K 18 is 5 mg, white and round. K 56 is 10 mg, pink and round. K 57 is 20 mg, gray and round.
Two other manufacturers cover the higher strengths. A 214 is 15 mg, green and round. M 15 is also 15 mg, green and round. A 215 is 30 mg, blue and round. M 30 is also 30 mg, blue and round.
Read down that list and a pattern shows: within immediate release, color tracks strength fairly well. White is the 5 mg. Pink is the 10 mg. Gray is the 20 mg. Green is the 15 mg. Blue is the 30 mg. Two different manufacturers landed on the same color for the same dose at 15 and 30 mg.
That consistency is exactly what makes the extended-release range dangerous, because it teaches a color habit that the other formulation breaks.
The OxyContin Imprints
OxyContin tablets are marked OP followed by the strength. Generic oxycodone hydrochloride extended-release tablets carry the same markings.
OP 10 is 10 mg, white and round. OP 20 is 20 mg, pink and round. OP 30 is 30 mg, brown and round. OP 80 is 80 mg, green and round.
Where the Two Color Ladders Collide
Put the two lists side by side and three colors appear in both, at different doses.
White and round is 5 mg immediate release (K 18) or 10 mg extended release (OP 10). Double the oxycodone, released slowly.
Pink and round is 10 mg immediate release (K 56) or 20 mg extended release (OP 20). Double again.
Green and round is 15 mg immediate release (A 214 or M 15) or 80 mg extended release (OP 80). More than five times the oxycodone in a tablet the same color and shape.
Someone who has learned that their green oxycodone is the 15 mg has learned something that is true of their prescription and not true of the drug. The imprint is what carries the dose. The color does not.
Where a Single Digit Carries the Dose
A 214 is 15 mg. A 215 is 30 mg. One digit apart, from the same manufacturer, twice the opioid.
Here color does help, because the 15 mg is green and the 30 mg is blue. That is worth knowing as the exception rather than the rule, and it is a reason to read both the color and the imprint rather than trusting either alone.
The M 15 Imprint Returns Two Different Opioids
Searching M 15 brings back oxycodone 15 mg as a green round tablet and morphine sulfate extended-release 15 mg as a blue round tablet.
Two different opioids, two different release profiles, one marking. The color separates them here, but a person reading only the letters and numbers has no way to tell which drug they are holding.
How to Identify a Tablet You Are Holding
Read the full imprint under good light, including any letter prefix and any spacing. Note the color and the shape. Then check all three against the prescription label, which states the drug, the strength and whether it is extended release.
A pharmacist will identify a tablet by its imprint without an appointment and without charging for it. That is the fastest reliable route, and it works when an online lookup returns several products.
A loose tablet with no bottle and no label cannot be confirmed by looking at it, no matter how clear the imprint is.
What Identification Cannot Tell You
Identifying an imprint tells you which product a tablet claims to be. It does not tell you whether the claim is true.
Counterfeit pills are pressed to reproduce the imprint, the color and the shape, and many contain illicitly manufactured fentanyl rather than oxycodone. Blue round tablets marked M 30 are among the most heavily copied.
The fentanyl content is not controlled and varies between tablets pressed in the same batch. As little as 2 mg can be a deadly dose, which is why one pill from a bag being survivable says nothing about the next one.
Where the tablet came from is the signal that works. A tablet dispensed by a pharmacy against your own prescription is what it says it is. Anything else is unidentified.
Signs of an Oxycodone Overdose
An opioid overdose works by slowing breathing until it becomes too weak to supply oxygen. It usually develops over minutes rather than instantly.
The signs are slow, shallow or stopped breathing; being impossible to wake by name, shaking or a firm knuckle rub on the breastbone; pinpoint pupils even in low light; blue or gray lips or fingernails; cold, clammy or pale skin; gurgling, choking or snoring sounds from a blocked airway; and no response to speech or touch.
Call 911. Give naloxone if it is available and keep watching their breathing until responders arrive. Naloxone can wear off before the oxycodone has cleared the body, so emergency care is still needed after someone wakes up.
When Oxycodone Use Has Moved Past the Prescription
Physical dependence on an opioid taken as directed is expected and is not the same thing as addiction. Tolerance builds, and stopping suddenly after regular use brings withdrawal. That happens to people following the label exactly.
What signals a change is behavior. Running out early. Taking a dose for something other than pain. Crushing or altering tablets, which defeats an extended-release coating and delivers hours of dose at once. Using someone else's prescription. Seeing more than one prescriber.
Nobody who has been on an opioid regularly should stop on their own. A prescriber lowers the dose gradually, and that taper is what keeps withdrawal manageable.
