OXYCONTIN: WE HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM, AND IT'S NOT GOING TO GO AWAY

How bad is the OxyContin problem in southern West Virginia?

In the past two months, five pharmacy robberies have occurred in Raleigh
County.

In June, a burglary ring tied to OxyContin was broken up by Raleigh
sheriff's detectives - after a man was beaten, they said, over an apparent
OxyContin debt.

Earlier this week, 12 people were arrested in Nicholas and Webster counties,
most on charges related to OxyContin.

"This area has had a problem with OxyContin for some time now," State Police
Trooper B.K. Cochran of the Richwood detachment said.

Two days earlier, a Nicholas County woman was arrested after allegedly
selling her 2-year-old son for $500 so she could buy OxyContin.

Problems with OxyContin - an effective pain-killer when used as prescribed
but a highly addictive, dangerous and sometimes fatal menace when misused
and abused - are not going to just go away.

It's going to take a continuous effort by law enforcement, social services,
the medical community and, yes, ordinary citizens to end illegal practices
with a legal drug.

And education must be part of the solution. It's never too early to relay
this message: If you experiment with OxyContin - or, for that matter, other
controlled substances or homemade concoctions, you're going to get hooked
and you're going to get caught. And you could die.