EXPERTS: OXYCONTIN IS JUST LIKE ANY DRUG WHEN ABUSED

OxyContin, a locally produced prescription drug that has been linked to
more than 100 deaths nationwide, is one of many medications that can be
harmful if not taken properly, two chemical dependency specialists said
yesterday.

The medication, prescribed for people with moderate to severe chronic pain,
has received national attention because of the number of people who have
abused it by chewing, injecting or snorting it to get a euphoric high.

OxyContin works by releasing its active ingredient, OxyCodone, over a
12-hour period. People looking to get high crush the tablet into powder,
speeding the release of the medication.

"If the substance-release mechanism is interfered with by not taking the
drug according to directions, you suddenly have a burst of OxyCodone coming
into your system in very high amounts, at times with unfortunate effects,"
said Dr. George Ubogy, an addiction specialist at the Addiction and
Recovery Program at Greenwich Hospital.

Ubogy talked about the drug yesterday with John Sayers, the program's
administrative director, during a half-hour radio broadcast. "The OxyContin
Phenomenon," which aired in Greenwich and Westchester County, N.Y., was
part of a weekly series of broadcasts sponsored by the hospital, each
highlighting a different issue in the medical community.

Use of OxyContin increased after many health experts questioned the
efficiency and aggressiveness of pain management in the country during the
last decade, Ubogy said.

"A whole specialty of pain experts has sprung up in medicine, and there has
been increased attention paid to whether hospitals and physicians are
paying adequate attention to their patients' pain," he said.

The number of OxyContin prescriptions written rose from less than half a
million in 1996 to approximately 5.8 million in 2000, according to the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration.

The drug, produced by Stamford-based Purdue Pharma, is the most prescribed
Schedule II narcotic in the country, according to the DEA. Schedule II
drugs have the highest abuse potential among controlled substances approved
for medical use.

As of Nov. 1, 117 of the 803 cases of OxyCodone deaths from 31 states were
linked to OxyContin, according to the DEA. An additional 179 deaths were
deemed to be "likely related."

In July, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal wrote a six- page
letter to Purdue Pharma, requesting that it take steps to help prevent
abuse of the drug, such as instituting certification programs for
physicians before they can prescribe the drug, limiting the drug's
availability to centralized pharmacies and devoting resources to
rehabilitation programs.

Over the past couple of years, Purdue Pharma has provided tamper- resistant
prescription pads, organized educational programs for health care
professionals and, most recently, started a clinical study on
abuse-resistant pain medications, said James Heins, a company spokesman.

While much of the publicity about the drug has focused on its abuse, some
physicians stressed its success as a painkiller.

"A lot of people do well with the medication," said Dr. Cassandra Tribble,
director of the Sackler Center for Pain Management at Greenwich Hospital,
who said she regularly prescribes the drug for cancer and chronic pain
patients. "It has allowed some people with chronic pain to function, to go
to work, to function within their families and within their homes."

Sayers said the drug has a "unique image" because of its popularity as a
painkiller across the country and the amount of media attention. But, he
added, OxyContin is no different from other drugs when it comes to abuse.

"It's a lot different using medication for pain management or using
medication for euphoria," he said. "Anything can be abused."