ARREST RESULTS IN COUNTY'S BIGGEST OXYCONTIN BUST

Police Say They Found More Than 200 Pills Of The Highly Addictive
Painkiller On Suspect

A man arrested on charges of dealing in the high-powered painkiller
OxyContin was carrying more than 200 pills, police said, the most seized
yet in Marion County authorities' pursuit of the newly popular street drug.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Cory A. Loman, 21, of Indianapolis earlier this
week as he fought with a girl outside a Southwestside restaurant. While
searching him, police said, they found 207 pills in a clear plastic bag in
his left front pocket.

"This is the first case where we have had this amount of pills that have
been seized from one individual," said Marion County prosecutor's spokesman
Roger Rayl.

Illegal use of OxyContin, sometimes called "hillbilly heroin" due to its
prevalence in Appalachia and Southern states, has gained a foothold in
Indiana. State Police handled 84 cases in 2000, up from 49 the previous
year; OxyContin jumped from 17th to 11th on the state's list of most
frequently seized drugs.

Intended to ease the pain of cancer patients, OxyContin sells on the street
for as much as $1 a milligram. Users ingest the tablets by chewing,
crushing them and snorting the powder, or dissolving them in water and
injecting the solution.

Nationally, more than 100 people have died from abuse of the highly
addictive drug.

Loman, still held in the Marion County Lockup, faces up to 20 years in
prison if convicted of charges of possession and dealing in a controlled
substance. He entered a preliminary plea of not guilty Friday morning in
Marion Superior Court, where a jury trial is scheduled for Sept. 20.

In an interview Friday, Loman admitted to using OxyContin but denied trying
to sell it.

"I don't sell drugs. I don't," he said. "I feel that I have a problem,
though. I don't have the money to pay for my (rehabilitation) treatments."

He said he was stereotyped as a drug dealer because he wore jewelry and had
cash -- about $375 -- as well as drugs in his pockets.

Loman was arrested about 7 p.m. Tuesday outside a restaurant in the 3400
block of Kentucky Avenue.

A police report said he picked up a juvenile girl with whom he was arguing
and carried her down the sidewalk, while she struck him in the face, head
and shoulders.

Deputies arrested both for battery.

Rayl said the prosecutor's office sees about one or two cases involving
OxyContin each month.

"It's a bad habit," Loman said. "It's very, very addictive."