NIAGARA ADDICTS TURN TO PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

Heroin is losing ground among Niagara's drug users who are turning to
prescription narcotics to get their fix, police and addiction experts
say.

OxyContin, morphine, Percodan and other legal drugs are being
trafficked in increasing quantities in the region, said Staff Sgt.
George Ravenek of the NRP intelligence unit.

"Heroin has to be brought into the country illegally and distributed,
but something like OxyContin is much easier to get hold of," he said.

Norma Medulun, director of the Niagara Health System's addictions
services program, says addicts hooked on these drugs are showing up in
growing numbers.

"I'd say right now we are looking at a 60-40 spilt (of heroin addicts
to OxyContin addicts) coming in for help or in methadone treatments,"
she said. "The bell curve is changing."

Medulun said it won't be long before prescription drug addicts
outnumber those using a traditional street drug such as heroin.

What Ravenek and Medulun are seeing was reflected in a report released
this week by the Canadian Medical Association Journal that found, with
the exception of Vancouver and Montreal, prescription opioids such as
OxyContin are used as much or more than heroin in Canada.

"I'd say we have noticed this happening steadily for, say, the last
five years or so," Ravenek said.

Yet there has not been a spike in thefts from pharmacies, he said.
Dealers and users alike get much of their drugs through what is called
"double doctoring."

"They go to a walk-in clinic in St. Catharines, get a prescription,
and then go to another clinic in Welland and get another," he said.

Medulun said walk-in clinics do not dispense large amounts of
narcotics and those pharmacists will often only write prescriptions
for a very small amount until the patient can see his or her family
doctor.

"The clinics are very careful, so these people who are doing this
really have to work at it to get enough drugs to feed their habit or
to sell," she said. "The point is that if you really want to get them,
you'll find a way."

What's more, because the drugs are legal, police have a harder time
cracking down on the problem.

"If I stop someone with 10 OxyContins in his pocket, he can say they
are for a legitimate purpose," Ravenek said. "On the other hand, if I
find heroin in your pocket, you're off to jail."

Police have to work harder to prove a prescription drug is not being
used for a medical reason.

Medulun said some people become addicts after having used the drugs
for a legitimate reason.

Medications such as OxyContin - sometimes called Hillbilly Heroin - or
Percodan are powerful and can quickly become habit-forming.

Eventually, when doctors stop prescribing the drugs, the addict goes
looking for another source.

In many cases, she said, users were people taking something like
heroin who turned to prescription drugs as a cheaper
alternative.

"There is no one scenario that describes them," Medulun said. "Like
all addictions, they come from every walk of life."