OXYCONTIN FIRM OFFERS TRAINING

The manufacturer of OxyContin is offering training to teachers in rural
areas of Virginia, West Virginia, Maine and Kentucky where abuse of
OxyContin and other prescription painkillers is a severe problem.

Connecticut-based PurduePharma is spending $100,000 to train educators to
teach business skills. The company's rationale is that bleak economic
prospects can lead young people to abuse drugs.

"When you're looking at why drug abuse occurs in communities, one of those
factors is just a sense of hopelessness," said Pamela Bennett, the
company's director of advocacy. "This [entrepreneurial training] broadens
kids' horizons, gives them hope and gives them life skills."

OxyContin is a pain medication that, when taken properly, is released over
time into the body to give relief to people who suffer from chronic pain.

But some drug abusers extract a concentrated rush from the pill, similar to
the sensation from heroin. They snort it or inject it after breaking up the
pills, bypassing the time-release safeguard.

The prescription drug problem in Maine's Washington County has become so
severe that officials cite it as an impediment to economic development and
as a significant public health issue.

OxyContin has been dubbed "hillbilly heroin" in parts of Appalachia.

Since 1998, OxyContin has been linked to at least 43 deaths in Virginia,
many of those in far southwest Virginia.

PurduePharma, which has been criticized for its aggressive marketing of
OxyContin, has canceled plans to distribute a 160-milligram dosage of the
pill, has trained doctors to spot fraud and is working to develop a new
pain medication that cannot be abused easily.

The company also will train 20 teachers in the four states to teach
entrepreneurship to try to improve the economic outlook for young people in
areas where the drug is abused.