ACROSS THE EAST, ABUSE OF PAINKILLER MEANT FOR CANCER PATIENTS IS RISING

PIKEVILLE, Ky. - The robber asked for only one thing when he walked into a
pharmacy with a mask over his head and an automatic rifle in his hands:
OxyContin.

The prescription drug, meant to be a painkiller for cancer patients, is
being abused throughout the East, authorities say.

In Kentucky, about 200 people were arrested and charged this week in what
police say was the largest drug raid in state history. All had allegedly
been using or dealing OxyContin.

"They'll kick a bag of cocaine out of the way to get to 'Oxy,' " said
Detective Roger Hall of the Harlan County Sheriff's Department in Kentucky.

Over the last two years, the drug has become popular in parts of Ohio,
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Maine, according to the Justice
Department's National Drug Intelligence Center.

On Thursday, authorities said that at least 28 people in Virginia had died
from overdoses of OxyContin in the last two years, and medical officials
said that number would easily double as coroners examine an additional 100
deaths.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Famularo, who helped lead the Kentucky bust, said he
had studied autopsy reports and determined that the drug had caused 59
deaths in Kentucky alone.

The company that manufactures OxyContin disputes Famularo's figures.

"Even one death from abuse is a tragedy," said Dr. J. David Haddox, a
senior medical director at Purdue Pharma in Stamford, Conn. "My concern is
that numbers sometimes take on a life of their own in a situation like
this. I've not seen any data that those numbers are anywhere close to
accurate."

Famularo said people had been crushing the pills into powder and snorting
it, or injecting it to get a euphoric high similar to that of heroin. It
sells on the illegal drug market for up to $100 a pill.

In Tuesday's drug roundup, police charged a nurse with stealing OxyContin
from her hospital, said Capt. Danny Webb of the Kentucky State Police in
Hazard. Webb said another suspect worked in a doctor's office and allegedly
called in prescriptions for OxyContin to pharmacies. Her husband would then
pick up the pills, police said.

In Ohio, two doctors were arrested recently in connection with OxyContin
prescriptions. In Maine last year, 11 people were accused of obtaining
OxyContin by forging prescriptions.

The drug has led to an increase in crime in eastern Kentucky, said Hazard
Police Chief Rod Maggard. He estimated 90 percent of the thefts and
burglaries in Hazard were to get money to buy more pills.

In a detox center in Ashland, about 75 percent of the patients treated over
the last 18 months have used OxyContin, said Bill Stewart, a supervisor for
the regional mental health agency.

OxyContin's withdrawal symptoms, Stewart said, involve nausea, diarrhea and
severe stomach cramps. "People very much want to go back to use again,
instead of suffering through withdrawal," Stewart said.