OXYCONTIN SUIT WON'T SOLVE ABUSE PROBLEMS

Attorneys for seven Southwest Virginians who say they have suffered due to
OxyContin addictions have filed a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the
drug's maker and two doctors who prescribed it.

The class action suit, filed in Lee County Circuit Court, alleges Purdue
Pharma Inc. and four affiliates aggressively marketed the painkiller while
downplaying its risks. The filing in Jonesville comes only days after a
similar suit in nearby West Virginia where state officials say the
companies used coercive tactics to convince doctors and pharmacists to
overprescribe the drug.

There is no doubt that OxyContin has been at the center of a growing
controversy, especially in the last few months. In a little more than four
years, OxyContin's sales have reached $1 billion. But with the success has
come special problems. The Drug Enforcement Administration says no other
prescription drug in the last 20 years has been illegally abused by so many
people so soon after it appeared. Many critics of the drug say it ought to
be outlawed, pointing to the estimated 120 deaths where OxyContin has been
a factor.

According to a recent Associated Press report, 70 of those deaths have
occurred in Virginia alone.

At the same time, however, OxyContin, a synthetic form of morphine, has
been a godsend to thousands in great pain. Pulling the drug would have an
immediate and harmful effect on these people.

Those who believe they have been harmed by OxyContin are certainly entitled
to their day in court. But it is hard to understand how a $5.2 billion
lawsuit is going to solve the problems attributed to the drug. The fact is,
such lawsuits tend to enrich a few members of the trial bar and their
clients but do relatively little to aid society.

In many ways, OxyContin is merely the latest drug to make headlines, but it
certainly won't be the last.

Unfortunately, the nation's drug policies continue to be modeled on a
failed experiment with the prohibition of alcohol. If OxyContin didn't
exist, another drug like it would. It would be the subject of black-market
deals, just as Quaaludes were a generation ago.

There's no doubt that OxyContin is a very powerful drug, prone to misuse
and abuse. But then, that is the case with most drugs. OxyContin has
apparently figured in the deaths of more than 100 people in four years, but
alcohol poisoning of one sort or another claims thousands of lives each
year, and that doesn't begin to count the thousands more killed by someone
driving under its influence. In terms of medical outcomes, alcohol is far
more deadly than OxyContin.

Here's something else to consider: If OxyContin has been marketed and
prescribed as indiscriminately as this latest lawsuit alleges, it is
difficult to understand why the vast majority of problem cases - nearly 60
percent of all deaths - are concentrated in one region of one state. That
would be akin to finding that, say, cocaine only harmed people in Billings,
Montana. Such a circumstance is unlikely.

OxyContin cannot legally be obtained without a doctor's prescription.
Obviously, much of the abuse of the drug stems directly from the actions of
unscrupulous or negligent physicians. Indeed, five physicians in Southwest
Virginia have been charged with illegally prescribing the drug.

OxyContin is a potentially dangerous, even deadly, drug. But the most
dangerous narcotic of all is the false belief that, as a society, we can
sue our way to sobriety and safety.