DRUG SPARKS CRIME SURGE Southwest Virginia Hit Hard By Opiate Abuse The widespread illegal sale of a morphine-like prescription painkiller in Southwest Virginia has created an epidemic of addiction and a surge in criminal behavior in the state's mountainous corner, according to federal and local authorities. Investigators say the drug, an opiate called OxyContin sold on the street as "Oxys" or "Ocs," has spawned a crime wave throughout the 8,000-square-mile area west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with users forging checks, breaking into homes, shoplifting and robbing pharmacies to obtain it. "We don't know how to explain this," said Kenneth Hill, project director for the joint drug task force in Wise, Lee, Dickenson and Scott counties. "It's not a poor man's drug - it costs a dollar per milligram [on the street]. But we're seeing a lot of people crushing it and snorting it or mainlining it. It's now the drug of choice here." OxyContin, developed by Purdue Pharma L.P. of Norwalk, Conn., won federal approval in 1996, and doctors prescribe it for patients in serious pain, such as that caused by terminal cancer or crippling arthritis. An opiate, like morphine and heroin, it eases suffering for up to 12 hours and creates a euphoric effect similar to a heroin high. Greg Wood, a health-care fraud investigator for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Roanoke, said a bottle of 100 40-milligram OxyContin tablets sells for about $400 at a pharmacy. On the street, though, the drug sells for $1 per milligram, meaning the 100-pill bottle could be resold for $4,000. This week, Dr. Franklin Sutherland of Grundy became the third Southwest Virginia physician this year to be linked by federal prosecutors to the alleged illegal sale of the drug; one doctor has been convicted and sentenced to 57 months in prison, and another is awaiting trial. Sutherland was arrested Monday and charged with 79 counts of illegally dispensing prescription drugs, including OxyContin. Sutherland, whose lawyer said he will fight the charges, was later released on a $10,000 bond. The widespread abuse of OxyContin in the past two years has meant more work for emergency room personnel. Overdose cases, some fatal, are increasing in the coalfields, said Dr. Art Van Zee of the St. Charles Clinic in Lee County. The number of patients seeking treatment for addiction has also jumped, he said. Van Zee conducted a study last year that found 10 percent of Lee County's seventh-graders have tried OxyContin, while 20 percent of 12th-graders say they have used it. Lee School Superintendent Dan Wilder said administrators knew little about the drug before they saw the study results. "It's an absolutely terrible problem, and there's never been any kind of narcotic addiction problem like this in Southwest Virginia, ever," said Van Zee. "It really bears some investigation." The state medical examiner's office in Roanoke has taken note and is trying to determine how many users have fatally overdosed in Southwest Virginia in the past two years. That investigation is not complete. "We've had an increase in OxyContin deaths, and they're widely scattered" throughout Southwest Virginia, said Rick Moorer, investigator for the medical examiner's office. "That's about all we can say right now. We're sort of putting it all together." The town of Pulaski alone has had four or five fatal OxyContin overdoses in the past two years, Pulaski Police Chief Eric Montgomery said. He said investigators believe 90 percent of all thefts, burglaries and shopliftings in Pulaski are linked to the OxyContin trade. Last month, a Pulaski grand jury returned 200 indictments against more than 50 people, Montgomery said, and the vast majority of the indictments were linked to OxyContin. "At $1 per milligram, they need a lot of money to support this habit," the police chief said. "We've seen where they'll steal four pairs of blue jeans, sell the jeans for $100, then use the money to buy the stuff." Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Ramseyer said OxyContin has replaced Tylox as the most abused prescription painkiller in Southwest Virginia. The active ingredient of both drugs is oxycodone, a white, crystalline powder derived from opium. But while the typical Tylox pill contains 5 milligrams of oxycodone, OxyContin comes in sizes of 10, 20, 40, 80 and 160 milligrams. Tazewell County prosecutor Dennis Lee said he has charged more than 150 people with OxyContin-related felonies in the past year, and prosecutors in neighboring Buchanan and Russell counties report similar criminal activity. Users will do almost anything to finance their OxyContin addiction, Lee said. "We've had armed individuals go into pharmacies with no desire to get any other drug or any money - they come in for this specific drug," Lee said. "They'll ignore an open cash register just to get it." Lee said at least 12 pharmacies have been robbed of OxyContin in Tazewell, Russell and Buchanan counties in the past year. A spokesman for Purdue Pharma declined to discuss the illicit use of the company's drug. However, Purdue Pharma and the drug's co-marketer, Abbott Laboratories of Illinois, are sponsoring a symposium today at the Hotel Roanoke for doctors and police investigators. The topic will be the use of drugs like OxyContin "in regulated and unregulated environments," according to the Lewis Gale Foundation, which is also involved in the symposium. Federal investigators have spotted five pockets of heavy OxyContin abuse in the United States: Southwest Virginia, rural Maine, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Charleston, W.Va. Federal authorities "don't know why certain drugs are popular in some areas and not in others," said Kathy Daniels, diversion program manager for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington. Nick Broughton, head of the DEA's Richmond office, said significant illicit use of OxyContin is unlikely to spread beyond the mountains to Richmond. Southwest Virginia, he said, "is a little bit unique" in its heavy trade of OxyContin. Hill, of the four-county drug task force, said users apparently go "doctor shopping" until they find a physician willing to prescribe OxyContin. They then resell the drug for big profits. Sellers are finding ready buyers, said Lee, the Tazewell prosecutor. "It's not difficult to sell. You don't have to beat anybody's door down. We have a tremendous problem."
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