SAFETY PANEL TOLD PAINKILLER VERY POPULAR WITH TEENS

OxyContin has been a big hit with teenagers, according to the Boston
police lieutenant in charge of the city's drug patrol unit.

``It's had a certain cachet,'' Lt. Frank Armstrong told the Public
Safety Committee hearing on Beacon Hill yesterday. ``What really
troubles me is that it's like when cocaine had that cachet above
heroin, and so it drew people. That stigma associated with heroin has
abated because people snort it now, and it's the same with
OxyContin.''

He said OxyContin has the misnomer of being called the poor man's
heroin, ``because you can buy 40 bags of heroin for what it costs to
buy one 160 (milligram pill of OxyContin). We find kids splitting a
pill now the way you used to split a six-pack with your friends.''

Law enforcement and health department officials painted a grim
picture of drug addiction:

AIDS awareness, and the fact that OxyContin can be snorted instead of
injected, has made it the drug of choice for many over heroin.

According to deputy commissioner Paul Jacobsen from the Department of
Public Health, teens under the age of 15 have been treated for abuse
of the drug.

OxyContin has not been listed as the cause of an overdose death in
Massachusetts, though it has been listed in conjunction with other
drugs, particularly heroin.

The DPH is rushing to come up to speed with treatment of the drug,
according to assistant commissioner Nancy Ridley, who said, ``It's
only hit the radar screen in the last six months.''

Approximately 50 percent of addicts treated in the state now have a
co-addiction to OxyContin, in addition to other drugs.