DRUG SPARKS CRIME SURGE

Southwest Virginia Hit Hard By Opiate Abuse

The widespread illegal sale of a morphine-like prescription painkiller
in Southwest Virginia has created an epidemic of addiction and a surge
in criminal behavior in the state's mountainous corner, according to
federal and local authorities.

Investigators say the drug, an opiate called OxyContin sold on the
street as "Oxys" or "Ocs," has spawned a crime wave throughout the
8,000-square-mile area west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with users
forging checks, breaking into homes, shoplifting and robbing
pharmacies to obtain it.

"We don't know how to explain this," said Kenneth Hill, project
director for the joint drug task force in Wise, Lee, Dickenson and
Scott counties. "It's not a poor man's drug - it costs a dollar per
milligram [on the street]. But we're seeing a lot of people crushing
it and snorting it or mainlining it. It's now the drug of choice here."

OxyContin, developed by Purdue Pharma L.P. of Norwalk, Conn., won
federal approval in 1996, and doctors prescribe it for patients in
serious pain, such as that caused by terminal cancer or crippling
arthritis. An opiate, like morphine and heroin, it eases suffering for
up to 12 hours and creates a euphoric effect similar to a heroin high.

Greg Wood, a health-care fraud investigator for the U.S. Attorney's
Office in Roanoke, said a bottle of 100 40-milligram OxyContin tablets
sells for about $400 at a pharmacy. On the street, though, the drug
sells for $1 per milligram, meaning the 100-pill bottle could be
resold for $4,000.

This week, Dr. Franklin Sutherland of Grundy became the third
Southwest Virginia physician this year to be linked by federal
prosecutors to the alleged illegal sale of the drug; one doctor has
been convicted and sentenced to 57 months in prison, and another is
awaiting trial. Sutherland was arrested Monday and charged with 79
counts of illegally dispensing prescription drugs, including
OxyContin. Sutherland, whose lawyer said he will fight the charges,
was later released on a $10,000 bond.

The widespread abuse of OxyContin in the past two years has meant more
work for emergency room personnel. Overdose cases, some fatal, are
increasing in the coalfields, said Dr. Art Van Zee of the St. Charles
Clinic in Lee County. The number of patients seeking treatment for
addiction has also jumped, he said.

Van Zee conducted a study last year that found 10 percent of Lee
County's seventh-graders have tried OxyContin, while 20 percent of
12th-graders say they have used it. Lee School Superintendent Dan
Wilder said administrators knew little about the drug before they saw
the study results.

"It's an absolutely terrible problem, and there's never been any kind
of narcotic addiction problem like this in Southwest Virginia, ever,"
said Van Zee. "It really bears some investigation."

The state medical examiner's office in Roanoke has taken note and is
trying to determine how many users have fatally overdosed in Southwest
Virginia in the past two years. That investigation is not complete.

"We've had an increase in OxyContin deaths, and they're widely
scattered" throughout Southwest Virginia, said Rick Moorer,
investigator for the medical examiner's office. "That's about all we
can say right now. We're sort of putting it all together."

The town of Pulaski alone has had four or five fatal OxyContin
overdoses in the past two years, Pulaski Police Chief Eric Montgomery
said. He said investigators believe 90 percent of all thefts,
burglaries and shopliftings in Pulaski are linked to the OxyContin
trade. Last month, a Pulaski grand jury returned 200 indictments
against more than 50 people, Montgomery said, and the vast majority of
the indictments were linked to OxyContin.

"At $1 per milligram, they need a lot of money to support this habit,"
the police chief said. "We've seen where they'll steal four pairs of
blue jeans, sell the jeans for $100, then use the money to buy the
stuff."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Ramseyer said OxyContin has replaced
Tylox as the most abused prescription painkiller in Southwest
Virginia. The active ingredient of both drugs is oxycodone, a white,
crystalline powder derived from opium. But while the typical Tylox
pill contains 5 milligrams of oxycodone, OxyContin comes in sizes of
10, 20, 40, 80 and 160 milligrams.

Tazewell County prosecutor Dennis Lee said he has charged more than
150 people with OxyContin-related felonies in the past year, and
prosecutors in neighboring Buchanan and Russell counties report
similar criminal activity. Users will do almost anything to finance
their OxyContin addiction, Lee said.

"We've had armed individuals go into pharmacies with no desire to get
any other drug or any money - they come in for this specific drug,"
Lee said. "They'll ignore an open cash register just to get it."

Lee said at least 12 pharmacies have been robbed of OxyContin in
Tazewell, Russell and Buchanan counties in the past year.

A spokesman for Purdue Pharma declined to discuss the illicit use of
the company's drug. However, Purdue Pharma and the drug's co-marketer,
Abbott Laboratories of Illinois, are sponsoring a symposium today at
the Hotel Roanoke for doctors and police investigators. The topic will
be the use of drugs like OxyContin "in regulated and unregulated
environments," according to the Lewis Gale Foundation, which is also
involved in the symposium.

Federal investigators have spotted five pockets of heavy OxyContin
abuse in the United States: Southwest Virginia, rural Maine,
Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Charleston, W.Va. Federal authorities
"don't know why certain drugs are popular in some areas and not in
others," said Kathy Daniels, diversion program manager for the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington.

Nick Broughton, head of the DEA's Richmond office, said significant
illicit use of OxyContin is unlikely to spread beyond the mountains to
Richmond. Southwest Virginia, he said, "is a little bit unique" in its
heavy trade of OxyContin.

Hill, of the four-county drug task force, said users apparently go
"doctor shopping" until they find a physician willing to prescribe
OxyContin. They then resell the drug for big profits.

Sellers are finding ready buyers, said Lee, the Tazewell prosecutor.
"It's not difficult to sell. You don't have to beat anybody's door
down. We have a tremendous problem."