Oxycontin Oxycodone Pills 40mg is an opioid pain medication sometimes called a narcotic. Oxycodone pills is a strong prescription medicine used when an opioid medicine is needed to manage severe pain enough to require daily around-the-clock, long-term treatment with an opioid, when other pain treatments such as non-opioid pain medicines or immediate-release opioid medicines do not treat your pain well enough or you cannot tolerate them.