OXYCONTIN ABUSE ISN'T TAPERING OFF

Despite Police Efforts, Prescription Painkiller Remains The Drug Of Choice
In West Virginia

CHARLESTON -- Despite efforts to cut off the supply of OxyContin from
doctor's prescriptions and pharmacies, abuse of the painkiller remains a
problem in West Virginia, law enforcement officers say.

"It's still the drug of choice," said Steve Neddo, commander of the Metro
Drug Enforcement Network Team. "I would never have believed it, if you told
me 10 years ago that a prescription drug would have taken off like this."

Neddo said his unit in January launched investigations of 11 OxyContin
cases in Kanawha County, three more than all of last year. Each case could
net multiple arrests and indictments.

Those statistics could be higher, he said, but the unit has trouble
infiltrating eastern Kanawha County, where much of the OxyContin abuse in
the Kanawha Valley takes place.

"It's a lot harder to get into rural areas, to get in and make buys," Neddo
said. "You need cooperating individuals. You don't just drive up Paint
Creek. It takes time and work at getting into places."

While OxyContin is more popular in rural Kanawha County, within the city of
Charleston crack cocaine still dominates. Neddo said his unit made 87 crack
arrests last year.

Statewide, John Parr, a deputy U.S. attorney general, said other task
forces are making inroads. Neddo's metro unit and the FBI have charged
eight people and convicted five. Three are awaiting trial.

In Wyoming, Mingo and Logan counties, 16 convictions have resulted from a
cooperation among officers from Logan and Boone counties, State Police and
Gilbert police.

The Mercer-McDowell area police have arrested 11 people, Parr said. Five
have pleaded guilty, with another four expected to plead guilty this week.

Neddo said he does not know how the drugs are getting into the state.

"Drug dealers are getting pills at the wholesale level, like a pharmacy
would," Neddo said.

"We still don't have a very good handle on that."

Neddo can't imagine a scenario in which a dealer painstakingly buys up
prescriptions or manages to successfully rob that many pharmacies.

The drugs could be coming from Mexico, said Robin Hogen, a spokesman for
Purdue-Pharma, the Connecticut company that manufactures OxyContin. Hogen
said future pills from Mexico would be marked differently than standard
OxyContin.

Wherever they're coming from, Neddo says, OxyContin use in rural West
Virginia isn't tapering off.