2 SENTENCED IN STUDENT DRUG DEATH

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Two former university students who faced 15
years in prison in the death of a student who took the painkiller
OxyContin received reduced sentences Monday under plea agreements.

Circuit Judge Larry Turner sentenced Ying Che "Dan" Lo to roughly
three months in jail and his roommate, Naeem Diamond Lakhani, to about
a month.

They were also ordered, as requested by the victim's mother, to keep a
photograph of Matthew Kaminer on their night stands for 15 years.
Kaminer was a 19-year-old University of Florida freshman who died in
April 2000 after taking the potent, morphine-like painkiller.

Lo, 20, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The pre-pharmacy student and
former drug store employee took 124 OxyContin pills and gave some to
Lakhani, 19, who allegedly gave one to Kaminer. Lakhani pleaded no
contest to delivery of a controlled drug.

Each was placed on two years house arrest followed by 13 years of
probation.

Both Lo and Lakhani read statements apologizing to the family of
Kaminer, whose death was among the first in a wave of deaths
nationwide linked to the drug.

OxyContin and other morphine-like drugs killed 152 people statewide
during the final months of 2000; more than 120 people nationwide have
overdosed on the prescription drug.

Hundreds have been charged with illegally prescribing or selling the
pills, but authorities in Florida have taken the matter further by
pursuing manslaughter charges when users die.