ADDICTION, OVERDOSES RISE AS OXYCONTIN ABUSE GROWS

For nine years, Sheriff Duane Blair, like his father before him, upheld the
law in rural Washington Parish. He never thought he'd break it.

In 1998, Blair's doctor prescribed OxyContin, a morphine derivative, to
help Blair deal with the recurring pain from a back injury. Within a year,
Blair said, taking a 10-milligram dose became "a regular deal." Soon, his
body demanded more. That's when he crossed the line, from law enforcer to
law breaker, altering a prescription to score stronger pills.

Federal authorities caught on and charged Blair with "fraud, forgery and
deception." He resigned from his job, sought treatment and now awaits
trial. A conviction could bring him up to four years in prison and $250,000
in fines. "I've always had control of everything I've ever done, and then
this happened," Blair said. "I couldn't believe something was running me
more than I was running it. It scares you."

OxyContin once was hailed as a miracle drug, and it is, for those who
suffer from chronic pain. But as legitimate users become addicted and drug
abusers learn of the pill's soothing powers, it's becoming a scourge of the
streets. Local police are arresting more dealers and abusers; morgues and
hospitals are seeing more overdoses; and detox units are treating more
addicts. Originally the drug of choice for pill-poppers in St. Tammany and
St. Bernard parishes, the narcotic known as "Oxy" or "killer" on the
streets is making its way into New Orleans.

"It's just the opposite of most drugs. It wasn't something that started
here and moved to the outlying areas. It started in the outlying areas and
is now moving into the city," said Rhonda Green, a registered nurse who is
the section manager of the acute medical detoxification unit at Charity
Hospital.

The problem could become even more widespread, some experts say, as
OxyContin hits a city with a built-in population of addicts and a large
community of college-age experimenters. One toxicology doctor at Charity
said he hadn't seen a lot of problems with it, but he expects to. The New
Orleans Police Department's Major Narcotics Squad recently sent a memo to
the eight police districts, warning that "the abuse and availability of
OxyContin will become a major epidemic in the New Orleans area."

"It's definitely a powerful drug, and it's definitely becoming a problem,"
said NOPD Detective Paul Toye .

Legal Origins

The pain-killing ingredient in OxyContin is Oxycodone, which also is in
Percocet. OxyContin originally was intended for cancer patients in the last
stages of their lives. It's sold in time-release tablets with a special
coating that dissolves gradually, feeding the body a small but steady
supply of the medication.

"It's a good pain medication. That's the saddest thing," said Louis
Cataldie, consultant medical director for the state Department of Health
and Hospitals' office for addictive disorders and the coroner of East Baton
Rouge Parish.

OxyContin isn't a new drug: Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., has been
selling it since 1995. But as more doctors prescribed it for chronic pain
and word of its attributes reached the public, OxyContin began attracting
the attention of potential addicts.

"Its abuse potential is just being realized by the drug-using community,"
said William Renton, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency's local office.

Capt. John Doran of the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office said the
department started making OxyContin arrests in the summer of 2000.
Initially, he said, "we didn't know what it was." But the drug "quickly,
rapidly became a problem," he said.

"At first, we started seeing people who were heroin abusers substituting it
for heroin, your hard-core dope addicts," Doran said. "From there, more
mainstream-type people started getting hooked on it."

Those who have taken OxyContin say it produces a "mellow high," one that
doesn't make the user feel sick afterward. It's also appealing because it's
made by a licensed drug company, not thrown together in a dealer's kitchen,
NOPD's Toye said.

"(Users) know it's not cut with a bunch of chemicals that could hurt them.
That's definitely attractive," Toye said.

A High Price To Pay

Blair's addiction to OxyContin cost him his job, his role as president of
the Louisiana Sheriff's Association and his family's standing in Washington
Parish, where a Blair had held the top cop's post for more than 20 years.
Blair's public acknowledgment of his addiction was especially tough on his
wife and 11-year-old son, he said.

"They had people look down at them because of something that wasn't really
in their control. That made me feel worse," Blair said. "If you do these
things to yourself alone, that's fine. You can handle it. But when you hurt
other people and they have nothing to do with this, that hurts."

There are countless other stories of lives torn apart by OxyContin. Slidell
Police Lt. Jesse Simon says she knows one woman who started using the drug
while caring for her mother, who was given the prescription as she lay
dying of brain cancer. Her addiction to her mother's medication became so
bad, Simon said, that the woman's husband bought a safe and locked the
pills inside. Undaunted, the woman hired a locksmith to drill a hole in the
safe when her husband was at work. She later was arrested for drug possession.

"She just got hooked on them, and it tore them up quite a bit," Simon said.

One St. Bernard woman came to Green after taking the drug while pregnant
with twins. "I love my children more than anything, and I couldn't stop
using," she told Green. After two tries, the woman completed Charity's
program, only to go back to the drug after her plan to enter a 28-day
treatment facility was thwarted because no one would watch her children.
"Anybody could be (an addict)," Green said. "You're just a prescription away."

A Growing Problem

OxyContin overdoses and deaths are on the rise. One reason for the
increases is impatience. Frustrated by the pill's time-release coating,
users are scraping it off to get a stronger rush in a shorter time period,
a rush that comes with serious risks, or they'll take a second pill when
they don't feel the effects of the first immediately.

"They crush them up, snort it, shoot it, ingest it, and they're dead,"
Green said. "They've taken 12 hours worth of medication in one dose."

In St. Tammany Parish, for example, the Coroner's Office has confirmed four
OxyContin overdose deaths so far in 2001, and toxicology tests on others
are pending. In 2000, one person on the north shore died from OxyContin
overdose.

The St. Bernard Parish Coroner's Office tallied three OxyContin-related
deaths in 2000. It has seen three such deaths in the first six months of 2001.

Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard said he has yet to see a death caused
by OxyContin alone. Usually, he said, he sees the painkiller mixed with
crack cocaine, still the city's drug of choice.

With any increase in drug use comes an increase in crime. Some Oxy addicts
will go doctor shopping until they find a physician willing to prescribe
the drug for pains real or imagined. Others will haunt the streets, where
the pills generally are sold for about $1 per milligram in 10-, 20-, 40-
and 80- milligram doses. One pharmacist said 30 40-milligram tablets sell
for about $140.

Law enforcement has seen a growing number of prescription fraud cases and
pharmacy burglaries. Blair was charged with two counts of prescription
fraud after changing the "1" to a "4" before turning his slip over to the
pharmacist, who gave him 40-milligram pills instead of 10-milligram doses.

"You build up such a tolerance that you can't stand it. The pain from
withdrawal is very, very severe, almost unimaginable," Blair said. "After a
while, one's good; two's better; three's best."

In February, a man walked into a Covington pharmacy and said, "I've got a
bomb, I've got a gun, and I'm going to blow this place up and kill
everybody if you don't give me 1,000 OxyContins," Covington Police
spokesman Lt. Jack West said.

The man left with 150 pills of a less powerful narcotic. A few hours later,
when police arrested him, his entire stash had been sold. The suspect lived
across the street from a junior high school.

"A lot of pharmacies are refusing to carry this because of the risk to the
employees," West said.

On a national and local level, the DEA is working to shut down so-called
"prescription mills" and to arrest doctors who inappropriately prescribe
the drug and patients who benefit from its illegal resale, Renton said.

In April, Slidell-area doctor Larry Thirstrup was booked on felony drug
charges, including three counts of distributing OxyContin, after an
undercover investigation revealed he freely prescribed painkillers and
sedatives to people who feigned pain.

As a result of the OxyContin-related crimes, those who legitimately need
the drug have to look harder for pharmacies willing to process their
prescriptions. And Cataldie, with the state Department of Health and
Hospitals, said the drug's growing reputation as an addictive, potentially
dangerous substance could make it even more difficult for legitimate users
to get.

"I haven't seen it yet, but certainly doctors are more cognizant that it's
an abused drug, so they would be reluctant to prescribe it," he said.

Recovery Takes Time

Getting hooked is easy. Getting off isn't. At Charity Hospital, the
OxyContin patients typically cause the most behavioral problems while in
detox, Green said. The withdrawal makes them anxious and irritable. They
often sweat a lot, complain of aches and pains and suffer from diarrhea and
vomiting. Eight out of 10 OxyContin addicts who start Charity's program
leave before completing it.

"They are blatantly honest with me," Green said. They tell me, 'I just
can't take it.' The drug's pull is stronger than anything."

After going public with his problem, Blair spent 52 days at McLean Hospital
in Massachusetts, a psychiatric teaching facility affiliated with Harvard
University. There, he said, he learned addiction is a disease and that
honesty is the only way to fight it.

"People think drug use is a moral issue. 'If you do this, you're a bad
person.' You're just a sick person trying to get well," Blair said.

Now home in Louisiana, Blair is set to go to trial on drug charges July 22.
His future career, he said, largely depends on the outcome of his trial.
Until then, he's concentrating on his recovery and his family, especially
his 11-year-old son.

"He liked me being sheriff more than I did," Blair said. "He said, 'We've
got to give our badges back? We can't have the lights on our truck no more?"