LEGAL DRUGS KILL, TOO

Agencies Step Up Education And Monitoring Efforts As Deaths From
Prescription Overdoses Climb.

Kimberly Hope Rodriguez had been drinking and smoking pot when she decided
to swallow half of a green pill marked with the initials "OC." A few hours
later, she took the other half.

Then she went to bed, and never woke up.

Today, her parents, Margarita and Vincent Rodriguez, share the painful
story of their daughter's accidental OxyContin overdose to get the word
out, especially to teenagers, that prescription drugs can be deadly.

"Trust me, they kill," said Vincent Rodriguez, 53, a disabled Vietnam
veteran living in St. Petersburg. "They killed my 16-year-old daughter."

His eyes fill with tears when he talks about Kimberly, whose daughter,
Alize, was 3 months old when her mother died two years ago.

More education is needed, the Rodriguezes believe, to make teens aware of
the dangers of prescription painkillers. And more regulation is needed so
the drugs are not so easily obtained. Their daughter did not have a
prescription for OxyContin and apparently got the pill from someone she knew.

"If we could save just one," says Rodriguez, "it would mean a lot."

More and more families statewide are facing similar tragedies as the death
toll from prescription overdoses continues its climb.

The abuse of prescribed narcotics has reached "epidemic proportions," said
Jim McDonough, head of Florida's Office of Drug Control.

The number dying from legal drugs exceeds those dying from street drugs
such as cocaine and heroin, McDonough said. Last year, about 2,700 people
died in Florida from prescription drug abuse.

"Consider the enormity of that," McDonough said. "In one state. In one
year. It's absolutely mind boggling."

To combat the trend, law enforcement agencies are stepping up efforts. And
at the state level, officials are working with legislators to set up a
statewide network to crack down on those illegally obtaining narcotics from
doctors and pharmacies. The system also would help identify physicians
prescribing drugs recklessly.

Locally, arrests are up for prescription fraud. "I think it's a lot more
prevalent than anyone knows," said Detective Bernie McKenna, of the
Pinellas sheriff's narcotics division.

Addicts are going to pain clinics or doctor offices to try to get
prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone or benzodiazepine drugs
such as Xanax or Valium. Oxycodone is the morphine-like pain reliever in
OxyContin. Methadone has been a treatment for addicts trying to kick an
illegal heroin habit. Hydrocodone is another heavy- duty pain reliever sold
under brand names such as Vicodin and Lortab.

"We have seen in the past few years an increase in the abuse of
hydrocodone," said Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor. "It's one of
those where it's popular for pharmacy fraud."

Many addicted to prescription medication were introduced to the drugs when
prescribed a painkiller for an injury or medical condition. When they try
stopping the precribed drug, withdrawal symptoms often can be unbearable.

"They hate it, but they can't stop," McKenna said. "I think the sad part is
there are a lot of people who are getting addicted who shouldn't be getting
addicted."

"Doctor shopping" is one of the most common ways to obtain prescription
drugs. Said to be widespread, it is the practice of visiting numerous
physicians in hopes of obtaining multiple prescriptions in a short amount
of time.

A counter strategy envisioned by state officials involves setting up a
computerized system to track the millions of prescriptions written for
narcotic painkillers and other controlled drugs.

State legislators are considering a bill that would establish the
prescription monitoring program. It would enable officials to create a
database, funded in part by Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut-based maker of
OxyContin.

The company agreed last year to provide up to $2-million to help set up the
program, said James Heins, director of public affairs. Purdue Pharma also
agreed to provide $150,000 for educational seminars around the state to
train law enforcement officers. The settlement ended a state investigation
into the marketing of OxyContin.

The company points out OxyContin helped more than 2-million people in 2001
relieve moderate to severe pain.

A study funded by Purdue Pharma also determined about 97 percent of the
drug abuse deaths involving oxycodone are related to the ingestion of
multiple drugs, Heins said. Published in the Journal of Analytical
Toxicology, the study analyzed more than 1,000 deaths in 23 states.

Prescription drugs have been abused for decades. Now, however, the drugs of
choice are more powerful than ever, said the state's McDonough. The high
from some of the synthetic drugs can be more powerful than the high
achieved from heroin.

"The synthetics have been getting better and more potent,' McDonough said.

Methadone is one drug rising in popularity with addicts. Two to three years
ago, less than 5 percent of those seeking treatment at Operation PAR would
have methadone in their system. Today, 35 percent to 40 percent admitted at
PAR are using methadone from doctors and pain clinics, said Gary Wenner,
vice president of methodone and laboratory services.

While there are many good uses for prescription drugs, Wenner said, part of
the problem is doctors are too willing to prescribe those narcotics without
first determining whether a patient has a history of drug abuse.

Then, word spreads about which doctors are more likely to hand out those drugs.

"The patients, they know which doctors out there are willing to write
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