OXYCONTIN TASK FORCE RECOMMENDS RESTRICTIONS ON PRESCRIPTIONS

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Tighter restrictions on those who prescribe and pick up
controlled substances are among the recommendations from a task force
appointed to cope with the growing abuse of OxyContin.

Prescriptions telephoned from a physician to a pharmacy would be banned for
controlled substances, though not for more routine medications such as
those for high blood pressure.

People picking up prescriptions would have to provide photo identification
to pharmacies, though third parties could still pick up medications for
others. The task force also recommended restricting the authority to
prescribe some medications by emergency room doctors to a three-day supply.

"It really is a prescription drug problem, not just OxyContin," Kentucky
State Police Commissioner Ishmon Burks told the General Assembly's interim
Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Rep. Gross Lindsay, D-Henderson, warned against singling out OxyContin,
which he said his late wife used to ease her pain.

"On the one hand, people need this medication in the worst sort of a way
and we don't want to impede that," agreed Dr. Rice Leach, Kentucky's health
commissioner.

But it is OxyContin, a relatively new painkiller designed to ease the
suffering of cancer patients and other critically ill people, that grabbed
the attention of law enforcement and the health care community a few years ago.

Dozens of deaths have been attributed to misuse of the drug and Kentucky
officials have made more than 600 arrests for trafficking or abuse this
year alone.

"By the fall of 2000, abuse of this drug had grown to epidemic
proportions," the report said. "OxyContin had become the number one drug of
choice, surpassing marijuana and cocaine."

Bob Barnett with the Kentucky Pharmacists Association, said telephone
prescriptions are commonplace and not all pharmacies have facsimile
machines that the task force would require to verify prescriptions.

Barnett said he only saw the recommendations on Tuesday and could not
respond to them all.

Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer, has been sued in some other states and
Kentucky has not ruled out the idea, said Denis Fleming, counsel to Gov.
Paul Patton.

Fleming said the question would be whether the manufacturer improperly
marketed the drug in a way that would violate the state's consumer
protection laws.

"We have the tool. It's something we're considering along with the attorney
general," Fleming said.

Purdue Pharma has taken steps to reduce the abuse of OxyContin, but the
company did not immediately provide a list of its initiatives.

Other recommendations by the task force would be to ensure that people who
use public assistance programs to purchase drugs for abuse should be taken
off assistance rolls and forced to repay the costs of improper
prescriptions; and updating a statewide computer tracking system for
prescriptions to inhibit people who go to several physicians to get
multiple doses of drugs to abuse. Most of the substantive recommendations
would require legislative approval or funding.

Numerous education and public service programs are also included among the
31 recommendations.