PHARMACY BOARD TO DEVELOP OXYCONTIN GUIDELINES

BOSTON - The state pharmacy board is seeking to develop guidelines
for pharmacists dispensing OxyContin after more than a dozen
Massachusetts drugstores have been held up in the past few months by
armed robbers seeking the powerful painkiller.

Abuse of the drug has exploded in rural Maine and Appalachia, and now
law enforcement officials fear it is moving into the urban Northeast.

"A lot of pharmacists and consumers have been calling the board since
this recent rash of pharmaceutical robberies," said Christine Zybert,
spokeswoman for the state Division of Professional Licensure's Board
of Pharmacy, which planned a meeting on the issue Tuesday.

"The board hopes to address some of the issues of how pharmacists can
protect themselves," she said.

The pharmacy board will discuss ways for pharmacists to protect
themselves and to identify fraudulent prescriptions, Zybert said.

If taken properly, the synthetic morphine is released slowly into the
body, but abusers crush the pills and inhale or inject the powder to
get the same kind of euphoric high that heroin brings. OxyContin has
been linked to at least 120 overdose deaths nationwide.