PATIENTS TELL OF BECOMING DRUG ADDICTS

Doctor's Prescriptions Known As A 'Graves Cocktail'

Patients who went to Dr. James Graves with real pain complaints said they,
too, became addicted to the powerful medications he prescribed.

Thursday was the eighth day of Graves' trial. The prosecution claims four
of the Pace doctor's patients overdosed on the medicines he prescribed.

The defense counters patients were drug addicts who lied to get the
medications they craved.

Joyce Redmon of Fort Walton Beach testified she went to Graves for a lower
back problem she had for a year. The physical therapy and Motrin she
received from another doctor did not work.

Graves prescribed what came to be known as a "Graves cocktail:" OxyContin,
Lortab and Soma.

At first, the OxyContin made her "hyper," she said, and she couldn't sleep
at night. But she was "pain free."

"It came to where I knew I needed it," Redmon said. "For the addiction, not
for pain."

Redmon's husband, Robert, became increasingly concerned. When he found
pills she had hidden, he threw them away.

One night, he couldn't wake his wife after she took some Soma. He drove her
to the emergency room. Even after the scare, she went back to see Graves.

"She couldn't stop if she wanted to," Robert Redmon said.

Desperate, he called Graves' office three times and finally left a message
that his wife was selling the drugs, which was a lie.

Former patient Wanda Wright, who went to see Graves for pain related to her
lupus and a car accident, said the medicines wiped her out.

"I was floating on numbness. Nothing bothered me," Wright said.

She testified she asked Graves if she would get addicted to the medications
and he replied: "No. Not if you take it like I tell you to."

When Wright didn't take the drugs, she said, she felt clammy, sweaty and
had diarrhea, "like a really, really, really bad flu."

She observed other people in Graves' waiting room with similar symptoms.
Once, she recalled, Graves saw the crowd in his office and commented:
"Business is going to be good today."

Not all the former patients who testified were legitimate pain patients.

Thomas Wilson, 63, said he mainly sold the OxyContin, Lortab and other
drugs Graves gave him. Wilson, also known as Buddy Wilson, visited Graves
but lied when he told the doctor he suffered pain after falling from a
house when he was 12 or 13.

Wilson was arrested in July 1999 for drug trafficking. A police search of
his home uncovered between 3,000 and 4,000 pills.

"Most of them came from Doctor Graves," Wilson told Assistant State
Attorney Russ Edgar.

Wilson would sell some pills - a 40-milligram dose of OxyContin fetched
$25; twice that much for 80 milligrams - and barter them for goods. He was
sentenced to 18 months in prison for delivering with the intent to sell
oxycodone/hydrocodone.

On cross examination, Wilson said Graves treated him for other ailments,
prescribing antibiotics and medicine to treat his cholesterol. Graves also
gave him some unsolicited samples of Viagra.