The Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday that they have approved the use of the painkiller OxyContin for children as young as 11 years old.

OxyContin is known as a very powerful and often abused painkiller. The director of new anesthesia, analgesia and addiction products for the FDA, Dr. Sharon Hertz, said that the studies on the drug “supported a new pediatric indication for OxyContin in patients 11 to 16 years old and provided prescribers with helpful information about the use of OxyContin in pediatric patients.”

OxyContin is a long-release version of oxycodone which is an opioid that acts on the brain in a similar way that heroin does, but is prescribed only for severe or chronic pain. Both drugs are extremely powerful and addictive. They are highly known to be sold to addicts when prescriptions are not available, according to NBC News.

In order to deter addicts from using the drug both illegally and for a quick high, OxyContin was reformulate in 2010 so they were not easily crushable. But the new use is set to be highly controversial because of the deaths and illnesses linked back to all opioids including Vicodin and Percocet.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that an average of 44 people die in the United States every day from the use of opioids.

“Opioids are having a considerable impact on public health and safety in communities across the United States,” Michael Botticelli, the Obama administration’s director of National Drug Control Policy, told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime last month.

Over 37 percent of all US overdose deaths are due to the use of opioids. And even that number thought to be low due to the fact that most death certificates do not list the exact drug responsible for the overdose.

The FDA is said to be putting very strict limits on the use of OxyContin in children. In order for children to officially be prescribed the drug for regular use, they have to show they can handle the drug by tolerating a minimum does of oxycodone for five consecutive days.

“We are always concerned about the safety of our children, particularly when they are ill and require medications and when they are in pain,” she said. “OxyContin is not intended to be the first opioid drug used in pediatric patients, but the data show that changing from another opioid drug to OxyContin is safe if done properly.”