OXY SUBJECT OF NATIONAL ALERT

Drug so addictive, Canada's chief coroners to issue overdose warning

In thousands of Canadian medicine cabinets, there's a junkie waiting to
happen.

Doctors are prescribing opiate-based painkillers -- offering a high that
rivals heroin -- at a rapidly growing rate despite inadequate safeguards
against addiction, say police and substance abuse counsellors.

Prescriptions for OxyContin, the purest form of the opiate oxycodone,
increased seven-fold between 2000 and 2004, and in Ontario alone, according
to the private health-information company IMS Health, sales increased 600
per cent in the four-year period ending in May.

With women particularly at risk, drugs containing oxycodone are being abused
so widely that Canada's chief coroners are preparing to issue a national
alert this fall. The drug is responsible for at least 250 overdose deaths in
Ontario since 1998 and hundreds more nationwide, the coroners say.

Because there is no central tracking system in the nation's pharmacies,
abusers can stockpile "oxy" or "hillbilly heroin" by hopping from doctors'
offices to clinics and hospital emergency rooms, duping MDs into writing
prescriptions and having them filled at an assortment of drug stores without
detection.

"In the end I didn't care," said Penny Quinlan, a Comber woman who pleaded
guilty to a massive double-doctoring scheme in which 15 physicians
prescribed her more than 3,000 oxy pills. "No one doing it cares because you
have to have the drug. When you know that all you have to do ... is go into
a doctor's office, of course you'll do it. They ask if you've been to
another doctor but of course any junkie will lie, and most doctors never
call other doctors to verify."

AMERICAN PRODUCT

Produced by the Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue Pharma LP, OxyContin hit the
Canadian market in 1997 and its use has grown dramatically. Sales reached
$72 million by 2003. According to IMS, Canadian pharmacies dispensed close
to 2.8 million prescriptions of all products containing oxycodone in the 12
months ending in May, up from just under 1.4 million in 2000.

OxyContin was hailed as a godsend for cancer patients and others suffering
long-term chronic pain thanks to its 12-hour release mechanism, which
significantly reduced dosages.

The company was required by law to warn users that breaking, chewing or
crushing the tablets "leads to a rapid release and absorption of a
potentially fatal dose of oxycodone." However, said John Stewart, general
manager of Purdue's Canadian arm, the warning led abusers to do exactly that
- -- grind the pills and snort the powder, or inject it in a water-based
solution.

"Some say we inadvertently told that community (abusers) what they might
want to do, but whether that was actually the cause is open to debate," said
Stewart.

Because of the potency of the drug when injected, hundreds in North America
have accidentally or intentionally overdosed.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has accused Purdue of "overly aggressive"
marketing of OxyContin, and the company faces about 300 lawsuits alleging
improper promotion of the drug.

Only British Columbia and Alberta have their pharmacies connected on a drug
monitoring system which helps pharmacists detect double-doctoring.

The Canadian Pharmacy Association is frustrated at the lack of a national
registry. Its members say that if the government had $1 billion for a gun
registry, there should be $50 million available to track prescription drugs.

"The federal government passed monitoring of drugs off to the provinces, so
the process is hit-and-miss," said association president George Murray,
owner of the Tantramar Pharmacy in Sackville, N.B. "Here in New Brunswick
there's no way to tell where people are going on the same day or how many
pharmacies they're hitting. Alberta and B.C. have the best systems."

CRIME SPREE

Murray said the Atlantic provinces have seen a 400-per-cent increase in the
use of oxy drugs, particularly OxyContin. Its abuse has led to pharmacy
break-ins and home invasions of seniors.

"We had an armed robbery at our pharmacy. One individual came in with a note
that read 'I have a knife,' and handed over a shopping list of drugs he
wanted. Another guy was a driver and they had a lookout. They were caught
and when they got to court were given less than two years. Maybe the
penalties need to be stiffer."

Dorothy Pardalis, vice-president of the Essex County Pharmacists
Association, said local pharmacists are seeing "quite an increase" in
OxyContin use. They also "often" see forged prescriptions.