diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8e5359b..214f0f7 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 amalgamation
 build
 *.pyc
+.pybuild/
 dist/
 MANIFEST
 debian/python-sqlcipher
+debian/python-sqlcipher-dbg
 debian/*.log
 debian/files
 debian/*.substvars
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 8eb174a..1b4e1d6 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ Maintainer: Ben Carrillo <ben@futeisha.org>
 Section: python
 Priority: optional
 Build-Depends: python-all-dev (>= 2.6.6-3), libsqlcipher-dev (>=2.2.1-2~), debhelper (>= 9)
-Standards-Version: 3.9.4
+Standards-Version: 3.9.6
 Uploaders: Micah Anderson <micah@debian.org>
 X-Python-Version: >= 2.5
 
@@ -17,3 +17,14 @@ Description: DB-API 2.0 interface for SQLCIPHER 3.x
  database engine. It is almost fully compliant with the Python database API
  version 2.0. At the same time, it also exposes the unique features of
  SQLCipher.
+
+Package: python-sqlcipher-dbg
+Section: debug
+Priority: extra
+Architecture: any
+Depends: python-dbg, python-sqlcipher, libsqlcipher0 (>=2.2.1-2),
+ ${misc:Depends}, ${python:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
+Description: DB-API 2.0 interface for SQLCIPHER 3.x
+ Python interface to SQLCipher (debug extension)
+ .
+ This package contains the extensions built for the python debug interpreter.
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 2620c92..614ae81 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -5,16 +5,30 @@
 # Prevent setuptools/distribute from accessing the internet.
 export http_proxy = http://127.0.0.1:9
 
+PACKAGE=python-sqlcipher
+
 %:
-	dh $@ --with python2 --buildsystem=python_distutils
+	dh $@ --with python2 --buildsystem=pybuild
 
 override_dh_auto_build:
 	python$* setup.py build_sqlcipher
 	python$* setup.py build_py
+	python$*-dbg setup.py build_sqlcipher
+	python$*-dbg setup.py build_py
 
 override_dh_auto_install:
 	python$* setup.py install --skip-build --root=debian/python-sqlcipher \
 		--install-layout=deb
+	python$*-dbg setup.py install --skip-build --root=debian/python-sqlcipher-dbg \
+		--install-layout=deb
+
+override_dh_installdocs:
+	dh_installdocs
+	rm -rf debian/$(PACKAGE)-dbg/usr/share/doc/$(PACKAGE)-dbg
+	ln -s $(PACKAGE) debian/$(PACKAGE)-dbg/usr/share/doc/$(PACKAGE)-dbg                                                                                                          
+
+override_dh_strip:
+	dh_strip --dbg-package=$(PACKAGE)-dbg
 
 override_dh_python2:
 	dh_python2 --no-guessing-versions
diff --git a/debian/watch b/debian/watch
deleted file mode 100644
index 7dec5aa..0000000
--- a/debian/watch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-version=3
-
-http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/p/pysqlcipher/pysqlcipher-(.*)\.tar\.gz
-
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f1aa879..509b694 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -146,6 +146,9 @@ class LibSQLCipherBuilder(build_ext):
     description = ("Build C extension linking against libsqlcipher library.")
 
     def build_extension(self, ext):
+        if self.debug:
+            self.__add_compiler_options("-O")
+
         ext.extra_compile_args.append("-I/usr/include/sqlcipher/")
         ext.extra_link_args.append("-lsqlcipher")
         build_ext.build_extension(self, ext)