DEADLY ABUSE OF OXYCONTIN

Abuse Of Pain Drug Increasingly Common Many
States Report Problems Like Kentucky's

Reports of widespread abuse of the painkiller OxyContin in Eastern
Kentucky are familiar to officials in other states battling the rapid
spread of the drug.

''There is no question -it is absolutely the drug of choice for
abusers,'' said Sgt. Kerry Rowland, commander of the Cincinnati police
department's pharmaceutical diversion unit. ''It's rampant throughout
Ohio.''

Federal officials say abuse of the prescription drug has become a
major problem throughout the eastern United States and has led to an
increase in thefts, pharmacy robberies and overdose deaths.

Concern about the spread of OxyContin abuse prompted the U.S. National
Drug Intelligence Center last month to issue a bulletin alerting law
enforcement officials to escalating abuse of the drug in states
including Kentucky, Ohio, Maine, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and
West Virginia.

''It certainly should be of concern to communities,'' said Chuck
Miller, a spokesman for the intelligence center, an agency of the U.S.
Department of Justice.

The government doesn't classify OxyContin separately from the rest of
the narcotic painkillers in the oxycodone class -including older drugs
such as Percocet, Percodan and Tylox. But the bulletin reported that
federal data showed a 93 percent increase in oxycodone-related deaths
between 1997 and 1998 -shortly after OxyContin was introduced in 1996.
The report didn't cite numbers of overdose deaths.

In Eastern Kentucky, the overdose deaths of 59 people have been
attributed to the drug since January 2000.

Kentucky authorities on Tuesday announced the indictments of more than
200 people as the result of ongoing federal, state and local
investigations into the illegal sale and use of OxyContin. On
Thursday, Southern Indiana police arrested three people, charged with
involvement in what police called a major OxyContin ring. An official
with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Louisville said
Oxycontin abuse hasn't been a big problem in the Louisville area or
Western Kentucky.

Police in other states predict the problem won't slow down, based on
their experience.

''It ain't getting any better,'' said Barney Stiltner, police chief in
Grundy, Va. Stiltner said his small town near the Kentucky border has
been battling an OxyContin problem for months and ''it's continued to
get worse.''

''It's like vitamins here -they take 'em once a day,'' Stiltner said.
''Addicts would sell their soul to get it.''

The powerful narcotic painkiller is prized by addicts because of its
unique time-release feature -which is what makes it valuable as a
treatment for cancer patients and others with severe pain. One pill
can control pain for up to 12 hours.

To be effective over such a long period, OxyContin is sold in pills
containing up to 160 milligrams -more than 30 times the typical
strength of similar painkillers. But abusers bypass the time release
by crushing and then injecting or snorting the powder, giving them an
intense high authorities compare to heroin.

It also can prove fatal; too much of the drug acts like a heroin
overdose, depressing breathing and killing the user.

Purdue Pharma, a Connecticut pharmaceutical company that developed and
has the exclusive right to sell the drug, last year produced
educational material for doctors and pharmacists aimed at helping them
detect abuse.

That material is now part of seminars the company holds for doctors
and other health professionals about pain management and the medical
use of OxyContin, said company spokesman Jim Heins.

''We are outraged that someone is abusing our drug, and that has an
adverse impact on patients managing pain,'' Heins said. He said the
company is concerned doctors will be reluctant to prescribe OxyContin
and patients to take it, even though it is a safe and effective drug
for patients in severe pain.

Abuse of the drug has produced a wave of other crimes by addicts,
including thefts and robberies to support their drug habit,
authorities said.

In Kentucky, pharmacy burglaries have risen -a trend some link to the
growing demand for OxyContin.

Mark Caverly, diversion group supervisor for the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration in Louisville, said Kentucky had 26 pharmacy burglaries
in the last three months of 2000, compared with seven for the same
period in 1999.

Caverly said he can't say for sure OxyContin is a factor, since
thieves tend to steal all controlled drugs they can find in a
break-in. But, he said, ''It's a common drug that's taken.''

In Southwestern Virginia's Tazewell County, more than 150 people have
been charged with crimes linked with OxyContin abuse, and in 10
pharmacy robberies since 1999 the thieves demanded only that drug,
according to the National Drug Intelligence Center's bulletin.

Robbers have become more bold in Cincinnati, said Rowland of the
city's police department. Some have gone into pharmacies with guns and
demanded OxyContin, including one man who robbed six pharmacies of
OxyContin before he was arrested.

Alarmed by the robberies, one Cincinnati pharmacist no longer carries
the drug and posted a notice that the store doesn't dispense
OxyContin, Rowland said.

The man who robbed six pharmacies later told police he had become
addicted to OxyContin after having been addicted to heroin.

''He thought it was heroin in a pill -he said it was the most pure
heroin he'd ever had in his life,'' Rowland said.

The Drug Intelligence Center said heroin abusers are turning to
OxyContin because it offers reliable dosage levels, and some can get
insurance coverage for it.

The center also noted that the profit potential -OxyContin generally
sells on the street for between 50 cents and $1 per milligram, up to
10 times the retail price -makes the drug attractive to dealers and
abusers.

In Kentucky, the sales of oxycodone drugs are growing, an increase
Caverly attributes to OxyContin. In 1998, Kentucky was 19th in the
nation in per capita consumption of oxycodone drugs. Last year it
ranked 13th, he said.

''I'm not sure we can attribute it all to OxyContin, but it's a pretty
safe guess,'' Caverly said.

Caverly said most reports of OxyContin abuse are from Eastern
Kentucky, and he isn't aware of a major problem in the western half of
the state.

The Louisville area hasn't seen a big surge of OxyContin abuse, said
Sgt. Kenney Bell, supervisor of diversion for Louisville-Jefferson
County Metro Narcotics.

''It isn't a big problem here yet, but it certainly has the
potential,'' Bell said. He said Metro Narcotics officers made about 50
arrests last year involving OxyContin.

Prescription drug diversion is an ongoing problem in Louisville, but
abusers tend to favor painkillers in the hydrocodone class -Vicodin
and Lortab -over oxycodone drugs, he said.

Based on what he's learned about OxyContin abuse elsewhere in the
state, Bell said he's working on ways to head off the problem,
including through his unit's regular communication with doctors and
pharmacists.

''We don't want to wait till it's happened,'' he said. ''It's a scary
thing.''

Narcotics detectives in Southern Indiana say OxyContin use and sales
there have become widespread in Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Scott and
Jackson counties.

''It's probably the drug of choice at the present time,'' Scott County
Sheriff Tommy Herald said. ''Marijuana, you don't hear about that.
Crack, cocaine -nothing. You never hear of the other stuff. It's just
OxyContin.''

No cases of fatal OxyContin overdoses have been reported in Southern
Indiana. But in the last three months, at least five Southern Indiana
residents have been arrested in connection with street sales.

Police have accused two -John O. Cozart Sr., 43, and his mother,
Phyllis Crawford, 61 -of selling the drug as members of a large New
Albany ring using a network of addicts to obtain OxyContin.

They raided Cozart's New Albany home Thursday and found an unmarked
bottle filled with OxyContin pills there, said Gary Humphrey, a
detective with the Southern Indiana Drug Task Force.

Humphrey said the ring, which police are continuing to investigate, is
responsible for the majority of OxyContin sales in Southern Indiana.

The ring hires people to tell doctors they have back pain or another
ailment that would require the prescription of OxyContin, Humphrey
said.

Each person goes to a halfdozen doctors, receiving prescriptions from
each, and then gets them filled at different pharmacies.

OXYCONTIN FIRST came to the attention of Southern Indiana authorities
about a year ago. It was then that detectives began noticing a rise in
property crimes, mostly from addicts trying to raise money to buy the
pills, New Albany Sgt. Keith Whitlow said.

''Just in the last six or seven months, people have gotten hooked,''
said Humphrey. ''Most of these guys, they get up in the morning, they
go steal all day, then they go out and pawn it or sell it to someone,
and then they buy their pills.''

Staff writer Meghan Hoyer contributed to this story.