PAIN-RELIEF CONTROL

The federal Food and Drug Administration needs to take a new look at
OxyContin and the ease with which this highly addictive painkiller is
prescribed. A Virginia task force is considering various strategies for
fighting the devastation that abuse of the drug has brought to many small
Appalachian communities. Tighter monitoring, tougher punishment, more
intensive education are all on the table for discussion.

Abuse by recreational drug users spreads as quickly as word of mouth about
the fast "high" delivered when the pill is crushed, then snorted or
injected - defeating the time-released safety mechanism that is supposed to
render the opioid relatively safe from addictiveness.

As misuse grows, so, too, does demand for a "cure" to the ills it brings
with it. The General Assembly will have to act. And it should. Money for
treatment to wean addicts should be high on its list of priorities.

No single measure will stop the abuse of this drug, however. Add to law
enforcement, education and treatment the need for interdiction, though not
in the sense applied to an illegal-drug pipeline.

OxyContin is both a legal and an effective drug with a legitimate place in
the nation's medicine cabinet for fighting chronic, severe pain. Its maker,
Purdue Pharma, pitched it to family doctors as a narcotic with a low
addiction risk. That promise has been dashed by the ease with which the
drug can be misused.

The FDA should tighten the reins on its distribution, and let only
specialists well-schooled in pain management judge who has a legitimate need.