CRACKDOWN ON OXYCONTIN REDUCES SUPPLY BUT RAISES STREET PRICE BY 50 PERCENT

HAZARD, Ky. - A sheriff's patrol car stopped at the entrance of Perry
County Park last week as Ray Hill's three children frolicked on the
jungle gym. But Hill remained vigilant for drug traffickers.

"It's still happening," he said of the OxyContin trade at the park,
which was nicknamed "Pillville" last year when it became a popular
hangout for people illegally buying the prescription painkiller.

While families increasingly are returning to the park, a federal-state
crackdown that resulted in hundreds of drug arrests in Eastern
Kentucky in the past year hasn't erased the OxyContin problem.

The crackdown has driven up the street price of the drug by about 50
percent and has pushed the problem into new areas, including
Louisville. Yet drug-treatment facilities in Hazard remain overwhelmed
with patients, and investigators are making new arrests aimed at
illegal sources of the drug.

"It's moved to other areas where it hasn't been before," said U.S.
Attorney Joseph Famularo, who described OxyContin abuse as an epidemic
at a February news conference at which he announced more than 200
indictments related to the drug and blamed it on 59 deaths in Eastern
Kentucky.

Famularo said a new round of indictments is expected in a few
weeks.

This week, a state task force is expected to submit a report to Gov.
Paul Patton with proposals to attack the problem.

The group's draft summary, obtained by The Courier-Journal, makes a
number of recommendations, including upgrading a state computer
database so it can immediately track all controlled drugs dispensed by
pharmacists. It currently generates an update every two weeks. The
draft also recommends requiring a photo ID or thumb print for anyone
getting an OxyContin prescription filled, and expanding drug-treatment
programs. Pills of the highly addictive medication, a synthetic
morphine that is often prescribed to help cancer patients cope with
severe pain, are crushed and either snorted or injected, which
bypasses the drug's time-release mechanism and gives abusers a full
dose at once. The result can be fatal.

AT LEAST FIVE new OxyContin overdose deaths are suspected in Eastern
Kentucky since the crackdown started, all in Perry County. Deputy
Coroner Clayton Brown said he is awaiting toxicology reports for
confirmation.

Last week, Jean Ann Myatt, a policy analyst in the state attorney
general's office, attended a meeting in Washington of representatives
from about 20 states with OxyContin problems.

Myatt said a priority for Kentucky was encouraging its neighbors --
particularly Tennessee, Ohio and Virginia -- to use a computerized
prescription system similar to Kentucky's KASPER system to help check
the flow of pills from out of state.

The KASPER system -- Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic
Reporting -- is a computer database that tracks all controlled drugs
dispensed by pharmacists in the state. West Virginia already has a
similar system.

The crackdown has made OxyContin trafficking less conspicuous and has
reduced supplies of the drug, police say. But the problem is
"definitely still an epidemic," said Lt. Vic Brown at the Kentucky
State Police post in Hazard.

The tighter supply has caused the street value of OxyContin to soar,
with a 40-milligram pill now selling for $60 -- $1.50 a milligram,
Brown said. The street cost was about $1 a milligram before the
crackdown. The usual prescription cost is about 12 cents a milligram.

"The Oxy problem in Perry County has not gone down a whole lot," Brown
said. "We've had buys off some of the same people who were indicted
but won't be sentenced until June. They're still on the street -- but
they're not going to the park anymore."

Still, Hill said, he leaves the park before sunset to avoid exposing
his family to any lingering problem. "They shut the gates at night to
try to catch the dealers, but they'll never stop all of them," he said.

"We've tried to patrol (the park) as much as possible," said interim
Hazard Police Chief Ronnie Bryant.

Bryant said there have been few drug arrests at the park since the
crackdown started, and he credited the roundup in February and the
increased police presence for bringing the illegal activity there to a
halt.

INVESTIGATORS HAVE turned their focus to people getting illegal
supplies. Seven people -- five from Letcher County, one from Hazard
and one from Knott County -- were arrested last week after being
indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of using home computers to
forge OxyContin prescriptions.

Arrests also are spreading elsewhere. In Bath County, a disc jockey at
a high school prom was recently arrested for possessing several dozen
OxyContin pills.

The problem has reached Louisville.

"We've been getting four to six (abuse cases) a month lately," said
Diane Hague, director of the Jefferson Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center.
Before that, she said, there were no such cases.

The crackdown has left doctors wary of prescribing OxyContin, said
Kelly Fields, a Hazard pharmacist.

"I would say prescriptions are down 65 percent since February, when we
had more than 100 a month," Fields said. "If we see any questionable
ones, we work hand in hand with the DEA."

Brown, the state police lieutenant, said much of the Eastern Kentucky
supply appears to be coming from Ohio rather than locally.

HEALTH-CARE OFFICIALS say their biggest challenge is providing
treatment and counseling to people who recognize they have OxyContin
addiction.

"It's more than a law-enforcement issue. It's a health-care issue,"
said Mike Townsend, director of the Kentucky Division of Substance
Abuse.

Townsend said many OxyContin abusers have entered methadone-treatment
programs. In the past year, nearly 95 percent of the more than 200
people checking into methadone clinics in Hazard have done so for
OxyContin addiction.

The percentage is only slightly lower in Corbin and
Morehead.

James Chaney, emergency room medical director at the Hazard
Appalachian Regional Healthcare Medical Center, said the hospital has
seen about two or three drug overdoses a month since February -- not
just involving OxyContin -- but there have been several deaths in
which OxyContin was found in the body.

He said the problem won't go away without adequate treatment
facilities. "We need a full-fledged detox center," he said.

Townsend said facilities in the Hazard area equipped to deal with
substance abuse are fully booked.

Judy Cattoy, who works with drug-abuse patients in Hazard at Kentucky
River Community Care Inc., said her outpatient program -- which mostly
serves people in their 20s and 30s -- has a waiting list of several
weeks.

"For people abusing drugs, sometimes that window of opportunity
closes," Cattoy said. "I try to make exceptions, but I can only do so
much."

Kentucky River HAS been at capacity for the past year, with 930 people
enrolled in its outpatient programs for drug and alcohol problems,
said a spokeswoman. The programs cover eight Eastern Kentucky counties.

Michael Spare, a Hazard psychotherapist, has referred many OxyContin
abusers to Nashville, Tenn., for treatment.

"I had two wonderful kids in here today that are addicted," Spare said
of two patients, one a high school senior and the other a recent
graduate. "We have started breaking the collective denial about this
problem."

IN HAZARD, the hospital emergency room, the methadone clinic, Kentucky
River and a few private therapists are the only options for treatment.
Health-care workers agree that leaves OxyContin abusers with limited
options for getting help.

According to Townsend, the recommended treatment is to enter a
residential or outpatient program and then a self-help group after
detoxification. But "we don't have the resources," he said.

The Rev. Ronnie Pennington, founder of the People Against Drugs
program in Hazard, is pushing for creation of a drug-treatment center
that also offers religious support. "We need money to get a
faith-based rehab center locally," Pennington said.

The medical center in Hazard does not have a licensed
chemical-dependency unit and is only permitted to provide
detoxification to patients who also have a mental health issue, such
as depression.

Sherri Gibbs, a business and development associate at Baptist Regional
Hospital in Corbin, said people from around Eastern Kentucky come to
the facility's 15-bed unit for detoxification and treatment over the
course of several weeks.

"With the OxyContin epidemic, we are staying full," Gibbs
said.