KSP HEAD WANTS OXYCONTIN RESTRICTIONS

FRANKFORT -- Kentucky should make it harder for people to get OxyContin, a
prescription pain killer, the Kentucky State Police commissioner said
yesterday.

Gov. Paul Patton's OxyContin abuse task force submitted a list of proposals
to the interim Judiciary Committee. The task force wants legislators to
change several laws when they convene in January.

The proposals include: requiring photo identification or a thumbprint
before an OxyContin prescription is filled; prohibiting emergency rooms
from distributing more than three days worth of OxyContin; and ordering
restitution from people who use Medicaid to buy the drug illegally.

The task force also called for improving the response time of the state
computer system that lawmen use to track the sale of controlled drugs at
pharmacies.

OxyContin is abused by addicts looking for a powerful sedative, state
police Commissioner Ishmon Burks, a task force member, told the committee.

Patton created the task force as horror stories about OxyContin addiction
began to surface.

But House Judiciary Chairman Gross Lindsay told Burks he's skeptical about
limiting the public's access to OxyContin just because some people misuse it.

Lindsay's wife, who recently died, had a prescription for OxyContin for
pain relief. Most of the time, he said, he picked up the drug for her
because she was ill.

"As far as I'm concerned, (OxyContin abuse) is a fad situation, and this,
too, shall pass," said Lindsay, D-Henderson. "So why are we going to all
this trouble to penalize people who need the drug legitimately?"