VICTORY IN DRUG BATTLE; HOPE IN WAR

WHITEHOUSE STATION-- Marianne Skolek has two jobs now.

Most nights around 6 p.m., she comes home, changes out of her scrubs and
considers her work as a nurse over for the day.

Then she sits down in front of her computer with the phone and fax machine
beside her and starts her other job.

She usually doesn't stop that work until hours later.

Sometimes, Skolek doesn't stop at all.

She says the memory of her daughter, Jill, keeps her plugging along.

Skolek is crusading against the company she holds responsible for killing
her 29-year-old "baby."

The murderer, Skolek says, is Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the drug
OxyContin.

Only four months after being prescribed the drug for a back injury, Jill
Skolek died in her sleep of respiratory failure at her Phillipsburg home,
leaving behind a 7-year-old son, Brian.

Skolek says her daughter should have never been given OxyContin for her
pain. She became addicted.

Now Skolek wants Purdue Pharmaceuticals to admit the drug is "addictive,"
not just "abusive."

Since April 30, the day of her daughter's death, the Whitehouse Station
mother has been fighting to make that happen with the help of an Iowa
woman, Chelly Griffith, who says she almost died from an OxyContin addiction.

Griffith's doctor told her the drug was "mobility in a bottle."

It turned out to be a nightmare, Griffith says.

By the time Griffith finally decided to check into a detoxification
facility, she says she suffered 56 side effects ranging from sleepiness to
obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"I decided I can live with my pain and be alive, or I can take OxyContin
and die," Griffith said. "Jill died."

The two women say they can feel Jill Skolek with them. Her spirit, they
add, is at the heart of every letter they write, every e-mail they send --
of which there have been thousands to government agencies and officials.

The months of letters and complaints recently paid off in the women's first
significant victory.

The Food and Drug Administration early this year issued Purdue
Pharmaceuticals a strong "warning" concerning two advertisements that ran
in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The warning read "Your journal advertisements omit and minimize the serious
safety risks associated with OxyContin, and promote it for uses beyond
those which have been proven safe and effective."

It went on to say the ads make no mention of the fatal risks inherent in
taking the drug, which are said to be comparable to morphine.

OxyContin spokesman Tim Bannon said the company pulled the ads immediately,
even though it disagreed with the FDA's opinion since the ads were aimed at
a professional audience.

"We don't argue with regulators," he said. "We take immediate action."

"We have nothing but sympathy, particularly in the case of Ms. Skolek, who
lost her daughter. That sympathy extends to her whether or not her daughter
had taken OxyContin," Bannon said.

Marianne Skolek said the warning is a step in breaking down the
multi-million-dollar corporation.

"I think they've been exposed. And we are so happy about it," she said.
"These people have not an ounce of concern for human life. They have not an
ounce of decency in their whole bodies."

"We'll stop when the FDA requires them to admit the drug is addictive and
put it on their labels -- and when every time Purdue does a marketing
strategy, they think about the people, not profits."

Skolek said she's confident she and Griffith will succeed. She said they
may not be doctors or pain medicine specialists, but the women know how
OxyContin can destroy lives.

"I dare them to ask me about the pain I feel about not having my daughter
here," Skolek said.