PAIN KILLER'S CHEMISTRY ATTRACTS ILLICIT USERS

Angel Of Life And Death

Less than two years after OxyContin was approved by the Food and Drug
Administration, addicts and recreational drug users began to abuse
the drug with devastating results.

OxyContin is a new medicine made from an old drug.

The prescription painkiller described as both a highly effective
analgesic and an "angel of death" has an active ingredient called
oxycodone, which has been used in the United States since 1938.

A powerful narcotic similar to morphine, oxycodone is derived from
thebaine, which in turn comes from opium.

While prone to abuse because of the euphoria it produces, oxycodone is
also widely used to treat moderate to severe pain from serious
injuries, surgery, cancer and other ailments.

Doctors have been prescribing oxycodone for years through the brand
names of Percocet, Percodan and Tylox.

But those drugs contain less oxycodone than OxyContin, which was
introduced in 1996 by Purdue Pharma L.P. The company spent years of
research to develop a time-release function that slowly emits the
enhanced dose of oxycodone into a patient's bloodstream over 12 hours.

Available in 10-, 20-, 40- and 80-milligram pills, OxyContin quickly
gained popularity and now generates more sales than Viagra. Its major
selling point: Patients are able to get fast and sustained relief
while taking the pills only twice a day.

Less than two years after OxyContin was approved by the Food and Drug
Administration, addicts and recreational drug users began to abuse the
drug with devastating results.

By crushing the drug into a powder that is snorted or injected,
addicts are able to bypass the time-release function to get an
immediate, heroin-like high. Law enforcement officials say the abuse
of OxyContin is like no other prescription drug.

"I think the problem with this drug is the fact that it's available in
such large-quantity pills," said Julia Pearson, a toxicologist for the
state Division of Forensic Science.

For example, a 160-milligram dose of OxyContin has the same amount of
oxycodone as 32 Percocet pills.

Purdue Pharma has suspended shipment of the160-milligram, the highest
dose available, in light of increased abuse.

Pearson said that Purdue Pharma could make the drug less prone to
abuse by adding naloxone, a narcotic antagonist that would greatly
reduce the euphoric high that addicts want.

The manufacturer of Talwin, a drug that was heavily abused in the
1970s, did just that, Pearson said -- producing Talwin Nx, a synthetic
narcotic that has not been a problem since.

But David Haddox, Purdue Pharma's senior medical director, said adding
naloxone to OxyContin would dilute the strength of the drug for
legitimate users and possibly lead to complications. "If it was that
easy, it would have been done a long time ago," he said.

The company has said it is spending millions on research to develop a
form of OxyContin that would be less popular to abusers.

But any new formulation would have to be approved by the FDA, a
process that could take years.

Until then, police may have to grapple with crime and addiction caused
by a drug that Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley has called both
an angel of life when used appropriately and an angel of death when
abused.