ACLU RAISES PRIVACY CONCERN

The American Civil Liberties Union said yesterday a plan by pharmacies in
Pulaski to fingerprint customers who buy OxyContin would be a violation of
the buyers' privacy.

"They're treating everyone who is sick enough to be prescribed OxyContin as
if they were a criminal suspect," said Kent Willis, a spokesman for the
Virginia chapter of the ACLU. "The government cannot just willy-nilly
demand fingerprints from its citizens."

This week, the Pulaski Police Department provided fingerprinting kits to
six pharmacies, enabling them to track customers by making fingerprints
with invisible ink when prescriptions are filled. Authorities hope the
program will keep addicts from falsifying prescriptions to get the highly
addictive drug or other pain killers.

"It may be illegal, or it may just be clever," Willis said of the
fingerprinting plan. "But it undermines public policy and our understanding
of privacy in this society."

OxyContin became available five years ago, marketed by Stamford,
Conn.-based Purdue Pharma as a miracle painkiller for cancer patients and
others in severe pain.

Abusers of the medication, which contains the opiate oxycodone, say it
brings a high much like that of heroin if crushed and snorted or injected.

OxyContin abuse has swept across mostly rural areas from Maine to Florida,
and officials estimate oxycodone has been linked to more than 120 deaths
nationwide, more than one-third from Virginia.

Vicky Frazier, a crime prevention officer for the Pulaski police, said
police would request a pharmacy's fingerprint records only when they
already have a suspect in a forgery case.

"We would not have open access to these prints," Frazier said.

The same fingerprinting kits have been used for years in the check-cashing
business, Frazier said, helping banks and grocery store owners protect
themselves from people who write fraudulent checks.

In Pulaski, a town of 9,900 where authorities have responded to 1,800
drug-related incidents in the past six months, officials are hoping the new
program will help.

"Hopefully, this will show we're trying to do something about it," Frazier said.