PRESCRIPTION PAINKILLER BECOMING WIDELY ABUSED

CINCINNATI (Associated Press) -- A former magazine photographer says his
addiction to the prescription painkiller OxyContin drove him to rob
drugstores -- and landed him in prison.

"It's like the purest form of heroin I've ever done,'' said Rob Ramundo,
29, formerly a photographer for a Chicago-based men's magazine.
"Absolutely, it was just as addictive.''

Ramundo, originally from Cincinnati, is serving a four-year term at the
Chillicothe Correctional Institution for robbing six pharmacies in suburban
Hamilton County and Clermont County last spring.

OxyContin was the only thing he demanded, police said. Ramundo said he used
the painkiller because it was better than the quality of heroin in Cincinnati.

The drug's manufacturer warns distributors to protect against theft of the
tablets, an opium derivative prescribed to suppress pain for cancer
sufferers and other patients.

Police say it has become popular as a drug of abuse.

Last year, of 140 arrests by the Cincinnati Police Division's
Pharmaceutical Diversion Squad for illegal possession or trafficking in
pharmaceuticals, 32 were for OxyContin.

"It's the prescription drug of choice from greater Cincinnati to rural
Ohio,'' said Sgt. Kerry Rowland, the squad's commander.

"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.
"We did a drug roundup back in September. We arrested 76 people, and 45
were trafficking in OxyContin.''

Doctors also have gotten in trouble.

A physician accused of writing bogus prescriptions to allow others to get
their hands on OxyContin pleaded guilty this month to engaging in a pattern
of corrupt activity. Jeff Lilly, 48, of Portsmouth, charged $200 to $450
for a prescription and kept minimal, if any, patient records at his pain
management clinic, Scioto County prosecutors said.

Lilly gave up his medical license and was sentenced to three years in prison.

On Monday, a Butler County grand jury indicted two Kentucky men on
aggravated trafficking in drugs and weapons charges. They were arrested
Jan. 28 in Fairfield after undercover officers bought 600 tablets of OxyContin.

Dr. J. David Haddox, medical director of Purdue Pharma L.P., the Stamford,
Conn.-based developer of the drug, said too much attention is focused on
abuse of OxyContin, rather than its pain-relieving abilities.

"We have to make sure physicians and law enforcement and pharmacists ...
are aware, and make sure we do all we can to minimize drug abuse,'' he
said. "At the same time, we need to do all we can to make the drug
available to patients who have legitimate needs.''