OXYCONTIN THE DRUG OF CHOICE OF ABUSERS

Jacksonville Police Say Tracking Down Prescription Drug's Source Is
Difficult

When it comes to the abuse of prescription drugs in Jacksonville,
police say OxiContin is by far the local favorite. Even though Sgt.
Jason Bettis, a detective with the Jacksonville Police Department, has
seen people hooked on everything from Ibuprofen to cough medicine, he
said most pill-poppers eventually gravitate toward OxiContin.

The brand name painkiller, known on the street as "Oxycotton" or
simply "Oxy," contains a timed-release formula of oxycodone, a
synthetic opiate. The pill available by prescription only is used to
treat pain when around-the-clock relief is needed for an extended
period of time, according to information from the manufacturer, Purdue
Pharma L.P.People get around the timed-release of the drug by chewing
up the pills and rubbing the powder on their gums, police said.Since
the drug is obtained legally and then diverted onto the streets, it is
hard for law enforcement to be proactive in combating its abuse,
Bettis said.

"Because people are getting the pills through proper channels then
abusing or selling them, it is nearly impossible to find a source,"
Bettis said. "If a pharmacist or doctor doesn't catch it, law
enforcement can't attack the supply." Bettis said he knows diligent
doctors that check special Web sites to look to see whether their
patients are using other doctors to get the same prescriptions that
they are issuing.A major prescription fraud case Bettis worked on
ended with a conviction in May.

Chastity Edens, 32, was convicted May 30 of obtain-ing a controlled
substance by fraud, a several counts of common law forgery stem-ming
from counterfeit pre-scriptions written in October 2007, according to
the N.C. Department of Correction. During his investigation, Bettis
said he obtained a book belonging to Edens full of code words.

"It took a while, but I was able to break the code," he said. "The
code words were different names and pre-scriptions the suspect was
using to get pills from different pharmacies."The prescriptions were
for mostly OxyContin and Lortab, but Edens would toss in a
prescription for an antibiotic every once in a while to disguise her
purpose of gathering as many painkillers as possible, Bettis said.

In all, authorities say Edens illegally obtained six pounds of
pills.Bettis said that he mostly encounters women in the prescription
forgery game."They are usually females in middle income families, a
lot of stay-at-home moms," he said. "Typically they get hooked after
using pain pills for a legitimate reason."Many of the women then
resort to selling some of their pills to pay for even more, Bettis
said."This is often a closet type drug," he said. "A lot of times the
families are not even aware what is going on when we arrest someone
because they are so good at hiding their habit."Bettis said he wanted
to emphasize how devastating to families prescription drug abuse can
be."I have seen families torn apart over pills," he said. "They are
much more ad-dictive than the average per-son thinks.