A GOOD FIRST STEP TOWARD CURBING OXYCONTIN ABUSE

Health-care professionals should join the drug maker in safeguarding
the proper care of chronic pain sufferers.

AS PUBLIC attention has focused on the tragic, even fatal,
consequences of increased abuse of the pain-killing drug OxyContin,
the responsiveness of federal regulators and the manufacturer to
tighten controls on the drug is heartening.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Purdue Pharma announced
this week a series of steps to intensify efforts to advise physicians
and pharmacists of ways to prevent distribution of the powerful drug
except for its medically appropriate use. OxyContin abuse has been
particularly acute in Southwest Virginia, West Virginia and portions
of Eastern Kentucky.

Critics of the manufacturer, some of whom have filed damage lawsuits,
have tried to get the drug removed from the market. That would be
regrettably misguided, because OxyContin, appropriately administered,
has proved to be an effective source of extended relief for such
sufferers of severe chronic pain as victims of cancer.

Yet the toll from abuse demanded a comprehensive response. A few
doctors have been charged with issuing fraudulent prescriptions. More
have been incautious or carelessly indifferent in prescribing the
drug. Theft and trafficking in OxyContin for illegal use have found a
lucrative underground market.

Purdue Pharma, stung by criticism that it had marketed its product
too aggressively, has initiated a 10-step program to reduce
prescription-drug abuse and diversion in areas, such as the
Appalachian region, where such problems are most acute.

Among those steps are continuing medical education of health-care
professionals in the proper diagnosis and treatment of pain; free
distribution of tamper-proof prescription forms; youth-awareness
programs; coordination programs with law-enforcement agencies; and
printing of brochures distributed to 500,000 doctors and 60,000
pharmacists nationwide suggesting safeguards against scams to divert
prescription drugs.

That's a good start, but it's only the start.