HBO, MTV PRODUCERS SHOOT DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE ON OXYCONTIN

GILBERT - Producers of MTV and HBO specials on OxyContin abuse attended a
Drug Coalition meeting at the Larry Joe Harless Center this week.

MTV Producers Gini Sikes and Anneka Jones filmed interviews and videotaped
the meeting for a special expected to air in November.

HBO producers also attended the meeting. They are filming a documentary on
OxyContin abuse. "We do a lot of hour specials on drugs, because we reach
kids and we get a lot of hits on the hotline numbers afterwards, so this
seemed to be a problem and we keep hearing about it and hearing about it,"
Sikes said.

OxyContin, which was approved by the Federal Drug Administration in 1995,
is prescribed as a strong painkiller for terminal cancer patients and
others with chronic pain. If taken properly, the active ingredient in the
drug is released slowly into the system.

Those who abuse it crush the pills and snort or inject the powder to get
the same kind of euphoric high that heroin brings. Gilbert police have
blamed OxyContin abuse for at least four deaths in town. The drug has been
linked to more than 120 overdose deaths nationwide.

Sikes said she heard of the Gilbert drug group's work on National Public Radio.

"We want to have both the urban persective and the smaller towns'
perspective," Sikes said. "We're driving around right now. I'm not done
with my crew yet. We're just doing a scouting. We're going to go to Kentucky.

"We have a Web site where kids can write to us and we had kids writing to
us that they had OxyContin problems, kids from down here. So, we actually
have contacts who have written to us saying they have a problem. We're
going to drive and meet with those individuals.

"We haven't decided exactly what the focus will be, but I would like to
focus on the community, as opposed to just one person to cover the
different aspects of it - how law enforcement focuses on it, how schools
focus on it, how the medical community focuses on it," Sikes said.

"I think some kids are naive about the drug and maybe if you can say 'Look,
this is how serious it is,' then you can reach them."