ABUSE OF DRUG 'GETTING WORSE'

ABINGDON - A state task force trying to stem abuse of the painkiller
OxyContin is considering a multipronged approach that includes tracking
prescriptions, toughening penalties for illegal dealers and treating addicts.

But in their first meeting since Attorney General Mark L. Earley formed the
task force, members said yesterday they think the scourge of death,
addiction and crime brought upon Southwest Virginia by abuse of the
synthetic morphine is worsening.

"The problem is not getting better," said task force member and Tazewell
County prosecutor Dennis Lee, who estimates that nearly 38 percent of crime
in Tazewell is linked to the illicit trade of the drug.

"For every [illegal dealer] we're picking up, there are probably hundreds
we are not picking up," said Lee County prosecutor Tammy McElyea. "It's
getting worse."

Dr. William Massello, assistant chief medical examiner from Roanoke, told
the task force that autopsies suggest that as many as 43 Virginians have
overdosed on OxyContin since 1998, 37 of them in far Southwest Virginia.

Though the drug is meant to give users long-lasting relief from moderate to
severe pain, abusers have found they can get high instantly by crushing it
and snorting it, or by dissolving it in water and injecting it. However,
the abuse can be fatal, because of the large doses of the drug's main
ingredient, the opioid oxycodone.

Law enforcement officials told the task force members yesterday that
residents in the coalfields continue to rob, steal and forge checks and
prescriptions to obtain the drug illegally.

Their addiction has also led to a thriving "guns for drugs" trade.

Meanwhile, Deborah May, marketing director of the Life Center of Galax, a
drug treatment clinic, said a recent survey of patients in the methadone
treatment program found that seven were trying to kick a heroin habit,
while 243 were hooked on OxyContin.

The drug's maker, Purdue Pharma L.P. of Connecticut, is taking aggressive
steps to curb abuse of its drug, which has continued to sell despite a
barrage of negative publicity surrounding its abuse.

Yesterday, Dr. J. David Haddox, senior medical director with Purdue Pharma,
announced that the company has stopped shipping 40mg OxyContin tablets to
Mexico after reports that the drug was being diverted and rerouted back to
the United States. The move comes one week after the company announced that
it would stop distributing its strongest OxyContin pill, of 160mg.

And two weeks ago, Purdue Pharma began sending its sales managers out to
talk to doctors in 100 counties around the country deemed potential sites
of OxyContin abuse. "Our sales representatives are telling our clients,
'Don't prescribe OxyContin unless you can do it right,'" Haddox said.

Authorities say some doctors are overprescribing the drug, giving it to
clients who sell it on the street for $1 per milligram.

OxyContin abuse has become a problem in isolated pockets of the nation,
though primarily in remote areas along the Appalachian mountains.

Law enforcement and company officials first noticed a problem early last
year in Maine, then in Southwest Virginia.

Yesterday, the 25-member task force bandied about several ideas on how to
eliminate OxyContin abuse, the most popular of which was the creation of a
system to track every prescription written for drugs prone to abuse.

Kentucky created such a system several years ago, and investigations that
once took 140 days now take 20 days, said Landon Gibbs, assistant special
agent in charge of the Virginia State Police unit assigned to
prescription-drug fraud.

"I know of no other system that will work better than a prescription
monitoring system," Gibbs said. "It's the most important thing we can do."

The committee also pondered toughening sentences for those caught illegally
distributing OxyContin. Dealers are typically given a suspended sentence or
one year in jail, according to local prosecutors. Those prosecutors
suggested new laws lengthening state prison sentences for dealers.

They also suggested turning more cases over to federal courts, where judges
can send a dealer to prison for five years if he happens to own a gun, or
20 years to life if he has five people working for him.

However, some task force members said that, ultimately, helping people beat
their addictions to OxyContin will be one of the task force's biggest jobs.

"If we took all the OxyContin off the street tomorrow, we'd still have
thousands of people addicted who are going to have to be treated," said
task force member Gary Parsons, sheriff of Lee County.