National Alert Set for 'Hillbilly Heroin'

Oxycontin Overdoses Have Killed 250 in Ontario Alone Since 1998,
Coroners Say

Canada's chief coroners and medical examiners are preparing a national
alert on the abuse of the popular painkiller OxyContin, a drug they
say has caused some 250 overdose deaths in Ontario since 1998 and
dozens elsewhere in Canada.

At the same time, Newfoundland's government is considering giving
police access to suspicious medical records and toughening its Medical
Act to curb the use of the narcotic that one Newfoundland police
officer has called the "nuclear bomb" of the local drug trade.

Opium-based OxyContin was heralded as a wonder drug when it hit the
market almost 10 years ago because of its time-release properties and
ability to relieve serious, chronic pain that had eluded other treatments.

Its popularity soared, bringing in $1.3 billion U.S. for its maker,
Stamford-based Purdue Pharma, in 2002.

But the prescription drug is now known as "hillbilly heroin" for its
use in the economically depressed rural United States, hooking
everyone from black-market abusers to teens to celebrities, often with
deadly consequences. The U.S. Federal Drug Administration has linked
OxyContin to approximately 400 deaths.

In Ontario, chief coroner Barry McLellan said in the past five years
there were 300 deaths in which oxycodone, the opiate found in
OxyContin and the drug brand Percocet, were detected in the body.

In Nova Scotia, there have been at least 20 deaths, about eight in New
Brunswick and six in Newfoundland, where OxyContin prescriptions
increased by 400 per cent between 2000 and 2003.

Canada's chief coroners and medical examiners have been tracking
OxyContin overdoses for months. Recently they decided to prepare the
national alert, similar to past warnings about seat belts, airbags and
bike helmets.

Meanwhile, measures being considered in Newfoundland are among 50
recommendations of a task force's report on the prescription painkiller.

Current legislation allows the province to share medical information
with police "when the protection of the public is an issue," Health
Minister Elizabeth Marshall said.

That data would include evidence of "double doctoring," where patients
approach several physicians to get prescriptions for the drug.

Marshall said there will be "stringent criteria" governing the release
of medical files, adding the right to privacy would be balanced with
the public good.

She said government would immediately implement tamper-resistant
prescription pads and establish provincial guidelines for methadone
treatment.

Yesterday John Stewart, general manager of Purdue Pharma, said his
company is "very aware and concerned about the abuse of the drug in
Canada and the U.S. We are working closely with governments, doctors
and pharmacists to find ways to deal with the problem."