SUBSTANCE-ABUSE CONFERENCE MAY LEAD TO SYMPOSIUM ABOUT TREATMENT, REHAB

ABINGDON -- A substance-abuse conference that focused heavily on the
narcotic painkiller OxyContin wrapped up on Thursday, and officials
said it likely will not be the last.

Much of the two-day conference dealt with the legal and social
effects of the abuse of the drug, a time-release formulation of
OxyCodone that can be deadly when snorted or injected.

It has been blamed for more than two dozen overdose deaths in the
region and about 100 nationwide.

A second conference on OxyContin abuse -- termed epidemic by local
authorities -- likely will be held to consider treatment and
rehabilitation, according to officials of the Virginia Department of
Social Services.

The latest theory in drug-abuse treatment -- that relapse often is a
part of rehabilitation and not an indication of failure -- is not
always accepted by the public or even professionals, a conference
speaker said Thursday.

"We've got a lot of education to do, even among ourselves," said
Aleta Spicer, director of the Occupational Enterprises program,
commonly called the Coalfield Project.

The program covers eights counties -- Lee, Wise, Scott, Dickenson,
Russell, Tazewell and Buchanan -- and the city of Norton.

Social workers said during the conference that they have seen an
increase in the numbers of children being removed from homes and
placed in foster care.

They attributed at least part of the increase to a rise in substance
abuse, specifically the abuse of OxyContin.

About 250 people, most of them social workers, attended the
conference, titled "A Community Epidemic: A Matter of Substance."

It grew out of a grant the Coalfield Project received for staff training.

Tony Fritz, director of the Western Region of the state Social
Services department, expanded the conference to serve social workers
from 21 Southwest Virginia localities from Christiansburg westward to
Lee County.

Fritz said a second conference, assuming federal financial help is
available, will try to bring in more law enforcement and mental
health workers.

He and Spicer said part of the problem with rehabilitating OxyContin
addicts is the expense.

"Medicaid doesn't pay," said Spicer, who is based in Lebanon.

Fritz said many OxyContin addicts go to Galax to a private treatment
center, but he said the local project has grant money to provide free
rehabilitation.

Through that grant, Spicer said, licensed clinicians see patients at
primary health care clinics operated by not-for-profit Stone Mountain
Community Health Centers.

Eric Hurt, a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's office in Abingdon,
told the conference during a morning session that federal courts
don't focus on rehabilitation and have little say in sentencing due
to mandatory guidelines.

He said the only way a sentence can be reduced is if a defendant
helps police catch others or testifies against them.

In a Lee County case, Hurt said, a supplier agreed to do just that.
In six hours, 35 people who came to the man's house to buy OxyContin
were arrested by federal authorities.
Barry Proctor, a state-certified capital murder defense attorney from
Abingdon and a substitute judge, said federal cases generally involve
the transport of drugs across state lines.

Proctor, who gave a keynote speech titled "Find the Balance:
Enforcement vs. Treatment," said state courts have a little more
sentencing leeway than federal courts but do have state guidelines
that must be considered.

He said he represented a client who forged a check and tried to
counterfeit $20 bills to buy OxyContin. The client overdosed while
out on bail, the attorney said.

"You might as well have told him not to breathe" as to have told him
not to use the drug, Proctor said.

At least 13 civil lawsuits have been filed against the drug's
Connecticut manufacturer, Purdue Pharma.

One of them was filed in Southwest Virginia and claims the company
aggressively marketed the drug while downplaying its risks.

Seven plaintiffs claim they were harmed by addiction to the drug or
the addictions of others. The multibillion-dollar suit seeks to force
the company to open free drug-addiction clinics to help OxyContin
addicts. Strother Smith, an attorney who helped file the suit, said
Wednesday during a question-and-answer session that OxyContin can
kill even when taken legally in doses as prescribed. "That is
nonsense," said Abingdon attorney Bill Eskridge, who represents
Purdue Pharma. "No one has ever died from using Oxycontin ...
prescribed by a physician (using) recommendations in the `Physician's
Desk Reference.'"