SEN. WARNER HOLDS LOCAL HEARING ON OXYCONTIN

Authorities Recommend A Prescription Database

HARRISONBURG - Making sure that OxyContin is used for chronic pain and not
for illicit highs requires a sophisticated prescription database system
proposed for the state, authorities told U.S. Sen. John W. Warner.

State and federal law enforcement officials have stepped up the battle
against illegal use of the prescription drug. OxyContin abuse has led to at
least 43 deaths in Virginia and a wave of crime concentrated in the
southwestern part of the state.

Warner, R-Va., addressed the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors in its
meeting room yesterday in one of several hearings on OxyContin he plans to
hold with local governments across the state.

Two federal prosecutors from Virginia's Western District, a doctor and pain
specialist from Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of
Virginia Hospitals and a Virginia deputy attorney general made
presentations for the senator.

Bradley B. Cavedo, the state prosecutor, touted a proposed centralized
computer database that would track prescriptions in the state and reveal
suspicious patterns of requests and dispensations.

Abusers of the drug, which users say can cause a euphoric high similar to
that of heroin, often alter or forge prescriptions to obtain multiple
dosages from several pharmacies. With a database, an investigator who
notices a known addict entering and leaving several pharmacies in one day
could use that behavior as probable cause to search for a record of
redundant prescriptions, Cavedo said.

"Right now, law enforcement can get the data they need, but they have to go
from pharmacy to pharmacy and from doctor's office to doctor's office,"
Cavedo said.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has targeted Virginia among
five states for a pilot prescription monitoring program.

Millions of legal OxyContin users need the drug to ease the pain caused by
cancer and other chronic ailments. However, abuse and overprescribing have
led to addiction, fatal overdoses and an upturn in crime in certain areas
by abusers trying to support their habits.

The pills are intended to be swallowed whole, but abusers often lick off
the protective coating or crush them for snorting or injection, releasing
12 hours' worth of painkilling power at once.

Overdoses have killed about 120 people nationwide so far, Warner has said.

Last month, Warner called for the Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions to hold a hearing on OxyContin abuse.

Warner suggested providing federal help to get the proposed
prescription-monitoring program working in Virginia until the state sets
one up. Cavedo estimated the cost would be about $1 million.

The senator also emphasized the need for education on legal OxyContin use
for doctors, pharmacists and consumers.

In the past two years, three Southwest Virginia physicians have been
sentenced to prison for their roles in the illegal distribution of the drug.

"I think we've got to get the word out to the community that you cannot do
this and this is the penalty," Warner said.