DEA OVERREACHES IN EFFORT TO STOP ABUSE OF PAINKILLER

The headlines are enough to scare any user of prescription
painkillers: ''OxyContin addicts, crime wave linked.'' The numbers
scarier still: 120 dead from abusing the powerful drug along with
thousands treated for overdoses, mostly in a string of Eastern states
from Kentucky to Maine.

Now the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is stepping in to curb what law
enforcement describes as ''epidemic abuse'' of ''poor man's heroin,''
with its first-ever plan to attack abuse of a specific brand of
prescription.

But the public isn't likely to applaud the DEA's heavy-handed
solution, if it goes into effect. It would set up needless
bureaucratic hurdles that could limit access to other painkillers.
Worse, it threatens to undermine the decade-long fight to reform pain
treatment.

OxyContin was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in
December 1995 to treat moderate to serious pain in a host of medical
conditions. While the active ingredient, oxycodone, has been around
for a half-century, OxyContin's innovation, and the reason it was
prescribed by doctors 6 million times last year, is its timed release
of ingredients that allows the drug to work for 12 hours, twice the
normal range.

Like other painkillers, OxyContin also is popular with drug abusers
who crush the pills and snort or inject the powder. That's why the
DEA wisely requires pharmacies to maintain detailed records on
OxyContin prescriptions and other drugs with the most potential for
abuse. Similarly, it forbids the refill of such prescriptions and
imposes limits on supplies provided to manufacturers.

Even so, the DEA claims that OxyContin abuse has become such a
powerful threat that it requires new interdiction efforts.

For instance, the DEA has asked Purdue Pharma, the drug's
manufacturer, to restrict those writing OxyContin prescriptions to
pain specialists and other doctors who regularly deal with chronic
pain. But there are fewer than 4,000 certified pain specialists in
the USA. If the restrictions move forward, millions won't have access
to the specialists who can prescribe a medicine they need.

The DEA also has told Congress that it is considering limits on
supplies of the painkiller, even though it's used by more Americans
than Viagra. Unless the Bush administration steps in and stops those
plans, thousands of Americans in serious pain from devastating
illnesses could be deprived of the painkiller their doctors believe
is most appropriate.

The DEA argues that such efforts are justified because of OxyContin's
high potential for abuse. But 40 other prescription drugs contain
oxycodone, and the DEA isn't seeking to restrict their use. At least
six other prescription drugs are linked to more deaths and
emergency-room visits than oxycodone but don't face similar DEA
attention. And regardless, 90% of deaths blamed on oxycodone involve
other drugs as well.

More importantly, there's little evidence that restricting patients'
access to painkillers will do much to fight drug abuse. Only last
year, The Journal of the American Medical Association published a
study, based in part on the DEA's own data, concluding that increased
prescribing of powerful painkillers did not increase drug abuse.

The DEA has plenty of law-enforcement tools to fight the illicit use
of prescription painkillers. There's no reason that its war against
one drug should interfere with the legitimate practice of
medicine.Today's debate: Controlling drug use Plan targeting
OxyContin could block patients' access to drug.