DRUG'S MAKER SEEING TO AID HARD-HIT COUNTIES

Next year, schoolchildren in the Maine county hardest-hit by
painkiller abuse will enjoy a new perk - a ''mini-MBA'' program in
business development - thanks to a new patron: the pharmaceutical
company that manufactures OxyContin.

Over the last five years, the Connecticut company Purdue Pharma has
ridden OxyContin, a form of synthetic morphine, to annual sales of
more than $1 billion. At the same time, illegal use of OxyContin has
become a hugely popular recreational drug among young people in rural
areas like Maine's Washington County, earning the nickname
''hillbilly heroin.''

Announcing a pilot program that provides $100,000 in education
funding, company officials said they are hoping to lessen the despair
that leads people to misuse its product.

''One of the things we've seen in common, at least in the smaller
parts of the country, is a sense of hopelessness,'' said Pamela
Bennett, the company's advocacy director. ''I think the goal is
really to provide these kids with a sense of hope.''

Purdue Pharma's gesture comes amid tension in the eastern United
States over whether the corporation can be held responsible for
OxyContin's wide misuse.

In West Virginia, the state attorney general has sued the company,
contending that aggressive marketing had contributed to abuse. Seven
plaintiffs are suing for compensation in Virginia, and the Maine firm
of Lewis, Saul and Associates plans to file suit soon on behalf of an
unspecified number of OxyContin addicts.

Company officials have said they were stunned by the wildfire spread
of OxyContin abuse and the crime wave that accompanied it.

After analyzing social conditions in the nine counties where abuse
has been highest, Purdue Pharma ''feels it needs to make a
contribution to help pull [Washington County] out of its problem,''
said Dennis Bailey, a spokesman for the company in Maine.

So, in the fall, 20 teachers from nine counties in West Virginia,
Virginia, Kentucky, and Maine will travel to New York to be trained
by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Five of
them, when they return, will teach Washington County students about
the stock market and how to formulate a business plan, said Victor
Salama, director of program partnership.

Private donors have frequently funded entrepreneurial training
programs for at-risk teenagers, but the foundation has never
partnered with a drug company before, Salama said.

In Washington County, where the problem cropped up first, abuse of
prescription drugs like OxyContin and Dilaudid has affected life
deeply. The addiction problem has driven away potential employers,
Bailey said, and nurses have reported babies born in withdrawal.
There has also been a spike in hepatitis C, which can be spread by
passing needles.

One longtime activist hailed the company's contribution.

''I think the company is working very hard to follow through with
what they feel is a moral obligation, and I applaud that,'' said Anne
Perry, a nurse-practitioner and member of the Calais school board.

But another activist said Washington County's crying need is for
treatment programs; none exists in the county yet, despite at least
500 addicts. Other great needs are for prevention education and law
enforcement, which is sparse throughout the remote county.

Coaching in small business administration, she said, is not a high priority.

''I'm not sure why they wouldn't have come up here and asked us what
we want,'' said Carrie Perkins-McDonald, who oversees the Safe
Schools and Healthy Students program for Washington County. ''I'm
glad to see that they're trying to help us, [but they should] try and
do it the right way.''

A company spokesman said, though, that the company would never become
involved in treatment or law enforcement.

''Purdue Pharma is a manufacturer of pain medication. It's not our
role to treat drug abuse,'' said James Heins, a company spokesman.