POLICE RAID NETS HUGE STASH OF OXYCONTIN

Tazewell County Find Could Be State's Largest

More Than 300 160-milligram Tablets, The Highest Available Dosage Of The
Drug, Were Found

In what is believed to be the state's largest seizure of OxyContin, police
raided a Tazewell County mobile home Tuesday and found a cache of the
prescription painkiller so potent that abusers call it "Oxy-coffin."

Steve Allen Shelton, 33, was charged with possessing about $100,000 worth
of prescription drugs with intent to distribute.

Since OxyContin abuse became rampant in far Southwest Virginia,
40-milligram pills have been the most common dosage for addicts who crush
the tablets and snort or inject the powder for a heroin-like high.

But Tuesday's raid yielded a far more powerful form of OxyContin - more
than 300 160-milligram tablets, the highest available dosage of the drug
that is usually reserved for patients with incurable pain.

"Wow, that's a big dose," said Tim Lucas, a Roanoke pharmacist and
president of the Virginia Pharmacists Association.

Since OxyContin was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1996,
Lucas has not prescribed a single 160-milligram pill - which has the same
amount of oxycodone as 32 Percocet pills. "We don't even stock it here," he
said.

In addition to 377 of the high-power blue OxyContin pills, also known on
the street as "Blue Bombers," police seized 284 80-milligram pills, 162
40-milligram pills, and 111 other hydrocodone pills of various strengths.

"It's the biggest haul of 160s that I've seen in the country," said Gregg
Wood, a health care fraud investigator with the U.S. Attorney's Office in
Roanoke. Wood said the raid also appears to be the largest overall seizure
of OxyContin in Virginia since the drug first appeared on the black market
several years ago.

As police staked out Shelton's home in the Mill Creek area of Tazewell
County, they saw a large number of cars coming and going from the mobile
home, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Lee.

After obtaining search warrants for Shelton's home and a 1987 Ford Crown
Victoria, police found more than just pills. They also seized $8,147 in
cash and a large amount of property believed to have been traded for drugs,
including tools, chain saws and merchandise that appeared to have been
stolen from stores, Lee said.

Shelton was being held Thursday on a $15,000 bond. If convicted, he faces a
maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

He was arrested by members of Tazewell County's narcotics task force, who
were assisted in the investigation by the Sheriff's Office, Virginia State
Police, the Richlands Police Department and the Bluefield Police Department.

Since OxyContin became the drug of choice for many abusers in far Southwest
Virginia, crime rates have soared as addicts cheat, steal and rob to
support their habits. There have been 39 fatal overdoses in the western
part of the state attributed to oxycodone, the active ingredient in OxyContin.

Purdue Pharma L.P., a Connecticut company that manufactures the drug, says
OxyContin is a highly effective painkiller when used as prescribed by doctors.

The company had expressed fears that widespread publicity about abuse of
the drug - which has reached the cover of Newsweek and grabbed air time on
national networks - will make physicians reluctant to give the drug to
legitimate patients who would suffer in pain without it.