TRACKING MAY NOT BE ANSWER ON OXYCONTIN

Education May Cut Overdose Deaths

It seems nearly every day we hear of some new and tragic case where
the powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin, the pain pill made
famous by Rush Limbaugh, has taken another life.

We don't mean to minimize Limbaugh's battle with addiction to the
powerful drug, but there's another aspect of abusing OxyContin that is
deadlier and quicker -- overdose. And young people who are not drug
addicts are its chief victims.

You may have read the tragic story of Lee County Sheriff's Office
Capt. Jeff Taylor, whose 18-year-old son, Matthew, overdosed on
OxyContin last year. Matthew took OxyContin at a party in San Carlos
Park, started having trouble breathing and died. Although his friends
realized he was in trouble, they didn't call for help.

Young people just looking for a high simply don't realize how very
easy it is to overdose on OxyContin.

That's because it is a timed-release capsule with enough medication to
control severe pain for 12 hours. When the drug is chewed or crushed
and snorted, the whole dose is received at once.

One 40-gram tablet contains the equivalent of eight Percocet
tablets.

The state's senators have been holding hearings this week to look into
the problems of doctors overprescribing OxyContin. At a hearing in
Orlando, pain patients told a panel of senators they were afraid
OxyContin's bad publicity would make it more difficult to get the drug.

Patients helped by it -- who use it safely, according to directions --
understandably are in the forefront of the opposition to new efforts
to regulate the drug.

Education likely will be the key to cutting down deaths from overdose,
because the medication is useful and effective for cancer patients and
people having chronic, severe pain.
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MyStory: Your chance to join the debate
=95 Is a prescription tracking system the way to cut down on the
availability of OxyContin? Is further legislation needed at all?

One problem with the drug is that selling it on the street can be
quite lucrative. A pill that costs $4 by prescription can bring $40
illegally. Obviously, we don't want people getting prescriptions
filled for OxyContin turning around and selling the pills to others.

At the same time, we need to make sure people who need the drug are
able to get it.

We're not convinced a prescription tracking system is the way to
ensure that this happens.