DRUG COMPANY WORKERS CHARGED WITH POSSESSION OF OXYCONTIN

Two employees of the company that manufactures OxyContin have been
accused of possessing the drug with the intent to distribute it.

HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) - Two employees of the company that
manufactures the prescription painkiller OxyContin have been accused
of possessing the drug with the intent to distribute it.

Kevin Payne, 30, of West Paterson and Wayne Bullock, 35, of Paterson,
were arrested June 28. Both men work for PF Laboratories, the
Totowa-based manufacturing arm of Purdue Pharma, which developed and
patented the drug.

Authorities have said OxyContin, intended to ease terminally ill
cancer patients' severe pain, is growing in popularity among New
Jersey drug users seeking its intense, heroinlike high.

Jim Heins, a spokesman for Stamford, Conn. based-Purdue Pharma,
declined to comment Thursday on the arrests. He referred all
questions to the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office.

Salvatore Bellomo, the county's senior assistant prosecutor, would
not say where authorities believe the men got the prescription drug.
He said the arrests were not immediately announced because doing so
might have interfered with the investigation.

Bellomo said Payne had less than half an ounce of the drug and
Bullock had more than half an ounce, but he would not say how many
pills that was.