ADDICTION TO PAINKILLERS ON THE RISE, POLICE SAY

Local authorities say hydrocodone, which Candice Jo Drye's family have
said she was addicted to before she got arrested last week on a murder
charge, is becoming more widely abused.

"This is the big thing coming up now," said Lt. Shelia Lingle, who
works in the criminal investigation division of the Salisbury Police
Department. Salisbury Police have made five arrests on hydrocodone
charges so far this year, Lingle said.

That compares to nine arrests from 2005-2007, she said. Authorities
cite several factors influencing the increase. "These drugs, they're
easier to get," Lingle said.

Hyrocodone, a painkiller, is the most frequently prescribed opiate in
the United States, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration. Doctors wrote about 130 million prescriptions for
hydrocodone-containing products in 2006, according to the DEA's Web
site. The painkiller comes in the form of prescribed drugs like
Vicodin, Lortab and Lorcet. Lingle said that since the drug is
prescribed by doctors, it's often more accessible than illegal drugs
like crack or cocaine. It's cheaper, too.

Drug users can buy a hydrocodone tablet on the street for a price
between $3 and $5, said Capt. Kevin Auten of the Rowan County
Sheriff's Office. Auten worked with the office's drug unit for 15
years before he took another position within the department a couple
of years ago. A crack rock costs about $20 on the street, Auten said.
One gram of cocaine goes for anywhere from $40 to $60.

Auten said hydrocodone abuse has been on the rise in Rowan County for
several years.

"The black market for pills ... it's so mobile anymore," he said. But
patients have found ways to get an excessive amount of pills from
doctors. Authorities call it "doctor shopping."

"They might go to five different doctors" for painkillers, Auten said.
The doctors usually don't know the patient has already gotten
prescriptions elsewhere, he said.

After seeing doctors, some people take their prescriptions to
different pharmacies, Auten said.

Some local pharmacy owners say they keep track of who's getting
hydrocodone-containing drugs. They also record which doctors are
prescribing them. Drye, 23, of Mocksville, was arrested last Thursday
in connection with the murder of Dr. David Boyd earlier that day.

The Salisbury dentist was found bound and strangled in his bedroom at
the home he shared with his wife and three children near the Country
Club of Salisbury. Drye's stepfather, Jerry Cruse, said Boyd had been
prescribing hydrocodone for his stepdaughter.

Before he was killed, Boyd was the focus of a State Bureau of
Investigation probe for reports that he was allegedly prescribing
painkillers illegally. When Charles Deadwyler, owner of Towne Pharmacy
on Innes Street, heard reports about the murder, he checked his
computer records to find out if Drye had gotten prescriptions filled
at his business. "She never got anything here," Deadwyler said.

He also said that his pharmacy has not filled a lot of orders
prescribed by Boyd. The same is true at Innes Street Drug Co., which
has two stores in Salisbury, said its owner, Mike Fuller.

Fuller said dentists normally don't prescribe a lot of painkillers.
"That would raise a red flag for us," he said.

"They prescribe it in very limited quantities. ... Routinely, you
should not have a lot of dental pain."

Most prescriptions for hydrocodone-containing drugs come from pain
clinics and orthopedic surgeons, Fuller said.

A two-or three-day supply of such drugs prescribed by a dentist is "a
gracious plenty," he said.

But that doesn't mean some patients don't want more. Salisbury
Pharmacy reported to police in January that someone had stolen 10,000
hydrocodone pills, said John Post, who owns the store.

Post said his pharmacy has had other incidents, too. A couple of
months ago, he said, someone tried to get forged prescriptions filled
there. And last week, someone snatched 90 hydrocodone pills from the
counter as an employee was filling an order, Post said.

"We caught them on video," he said. Post said his pharmacy had not
filled prescriptions for Drye.