MORE OXYCONTIN USERS SEEK HELP FOR ADDICTION

{Lead-in is photo by Jennifer Rotenizer of The Sun News encaptioned:
Frances Ross of Little River is fighting an addiction to Oxycontin. Ross
was a patient at Comprehensive Care & Pain Management Centers located at
7714 N. Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach. The center has a sign on the door
that reads "To our patients - due to recent sanctions placed on us by the
DEA, we are currently closed. We hope to re-open in the near future and
will contact you regarding re-scheduling your appointment at that time."}

Local health officials say they're seeing an increase in the number of
people seeking help for an OxyContin addiction, mirroring a national jump
in the use of the prescription pain medication.

Although it is not clear why there's been a sudden surge in the number of
people visiting local emergency rooms and treatment centers, some health
officials speculate it's linked to the recent closing of a pain management
center in Myrtle Beach.

Comprehensive Care and Pain Management Center at 7714 N. Kings Highway
closed in mid-June because of sanctions by the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The DEA would not disclose details of the sanctions, but the American
Medical Association, in a June 25 article online, reported that the clinic
was under investigation for its prescribing methods.

Dr. D. Michael Woodward, the center's chief executive officer, could not be
reached for comment.

The AMA article said the Drug Enforcement Agency suspended the DEA number
of another doctor at the clinic, Dr. Benjamin Moore. Doctors cannot
prescribe medicine without the number. The article says Moore prescribed
OxyContin and other drugs without proper testing.

Moore denied the allegations, saying he was prescribing OxyContin in an
appropriate way.

A DEA spokesman would not comment on the article, saying the case is still
being investigated.

Since the clinic closed, emergency room visits have increased and calls for
referrals for pain management physicians have risen along the Grand Strand,
officials say.

Prescription drug abuse and addiction is a growing problem across the
country. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an estimated 9
million people 12 and older reported using sedatives, stimulants,
tranquilizers or opiates such as OxyContin for nonmedical reasons in 1999.

"While prescription drugs can relieve a variety of medical problems and
improve the lives of millions of Americans, they can be dangerous,
addicting - and even deadly - when used nonmedically," said Dr. Alan I.
Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Tonya Compton, director of quality improvement and licensed counselor at
Shoreline Behavioral Health Services in Conway, said there's been a rise in
clients seeking help for problems with OxyContin in the past four months.

The number increased again after the pain management center closed, she
said. Shoreline, on average, used to receive about two calls a day from
people needing crisis intervention. Now it receives at least five calls a
day, most citing problems with OxyContin, she said.

"We typically don't have the phone ringing off the hook like we've had
lately," Compton said.

Dr. Brian Kelleher, medical director of Conway Hospital's emergency
department, said patients seeking help are being offered non-narcotic
medications for pain and other medications to help them deal with
withdrawal symptoms.

Most of the patients seeking help are those taking OxyContin, an opiate
used to manage moderate to severe chronic pain and widely used by cancer
patients, Kelleher said.

"We've been seeing [patients with OxyContin problems] all along, because
even during the time when the clinic was still seeing patients, they'd run
out of their medications" and seek help in the emergency room, Kelleher
said. "Since their closure, we've seen a dramatic increase."

Kelleher said the emergency room at South Strand Ambulatory Care Center on
U.S. 17 Bypass south of Myrtle Beach has seen up to six patients a day with
pain management problems and others complaining of chronic pain and
requesting support.

"And we have seen spillover here in Conway," Kelleher said.

He said he's been surprised by how much OxyContin many patients have been
taking.

"These drugs were originally developed for patients with cancer and other
painful conditions," Kelleher said. "Now we see people on OxyContin for
back and neck pain. If I had a magic wand to make one drug problem go away,
I would make that go away. All of it pales in comparison to OxyContin when
it comes to the impact in emergency rooms."

About a week after the pain center closed, Grand Strand Regional Medical
Center in Myrtle Beach began seeing up to 10 patients a day seeking pain
medications, said Joan Carroza, hospital spokeswoman. The hospital has also
received several calls asking for referrals to pain management physicians,
Carroza said.

The NIDA says opiates such as OxyContin are safe if used properly and under
a physician's supervision. Addiction rarely occurs, but inappropriate use
of prescription drugs can lead to addiction.

Although withdrawal from the opiate isn't necessarily fatal, it can be
"miserably uncomfortable" and requires medical assistance, said Paige
Bottom, director of operations at Wilmington Treatment Center, which
recently opened an outpatient center in Myrtle Beach.

"You really can beat this, but the likelihood of beating it on your own
would be very difficult," Bottom said.

Withdrawal symptoms can include restlessness, muscle and bone pain,
insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps, and
involuntary leg movements, according to NIDA.

When Cherry Grove resident Frances Ross, a patient of the center, was no
longer able to get OxyContin for her osteoarthritis, she realized she had
become addicted. She was taking three 40-milligram OxyContin pills a day,
she said.

"I have never went through anything like this before in my life," said Ross
about the withdrawal symptoms. "I've been in withdrawals for two weeks and
I've been in and out of hospitals." "I threw up for five or six days," Ross
said. "I couldn't eat or drink. There's depression, confusion. It's like
you're in a cloud. I've just now started feeling like myself again."

Ross' brother, Raymond Ross, was also a patient at the center and was
prescribed OxyContin for migraine headaches.

He and his sister, with the help of a local physician, are being weaned off
the medication they said made them feel like Superman.

"I could work until 9 or 10 at night," Raymond Ross said. "You feel no
pain. I never realized what I was getting myself into."

The Rosses are battling their addictions in their own home with the support
of Donna Ross, Raymond Ross' wife, who has been taking care of them.

The Grand Strand does not have an inpatient drug treatment facility.

Patients who seek help for OxyContin addiction at Shoreline Behavioral
Health Services in Conway or the Wilmington Treatment Center in Myrtle
Beach are referred to inpatient treatment facilities in such places as
Charleston, Florence and Wilmington, N.C.

Prescriptions for OxyContin have slowed since Medicaid has implemented
tighter restrictions on who can receive the drug and since the pain
management clinic shut down, said Ron Mason, pharmacist at Northside
Pharmacy in Myrtle Beach.

"The sources for a lot of these things have dried up," Mason said. "That
limits the availability for the prescriptions."

Medicaid now requires authorization before pharmacies can fill OxyContin
prescriptions, which can cost as much as $700 for a 90-day supply.

Local law enforcement agencies have said OxyContin is becoming more of a
problem.

Mason said his pharmacy was robbed at gunpoint in November 1999 by a man
seeking the drug. The store was also burglarized in January; mostly taken
was OxyContin.

"Dozens of other narcotics were left on the shelf," he said.

More treatment facilities are needed to help addicts, Mason said. "It would
be good if they could establish something. They have methadone clinics in
other areas. They need something like that here, at least for the time being.

It would help cut down on the crime in trying to procure [OxyContin]."