ONE YEAR LATER, SOME PROGRESS MADE IN OXYCONTIN FIGHT

He's been clean two years, but Andrew Moskevich is still paying for
his OxyContin addiction.

Last month he sent a check for $2,550 to his former downstairs
neighbor in Peabody, the woman he once robbed to buy drugs.

The payment is another step in the recovery process for the
22-year-old former honor student and class treasurer at Peabody High
School. Moskevich got hooked on OxyContin in high school and ended up
homeless, estranged from his family, and sent to a locked detox unit
by the courts. Now he is working for the very agency that helped him
recover. He is an administrative assistant for the South Middlesex
Opportunity Council in Framingham, helping young addicts get treatment
and find housing. "It's good to be on this side," Moskevich said.

Moskevich's transition from addict to advocate is one example of the
progress that has been made since The Salem News published a series of
stories one year ago on the widespread abuse of OxyContin and heroin
by young people on the North Shore.

The stories of shattered lives and broken families stunned many
people. These opiate addicts were kids from good families, with
promising futures "" a school superintendent's son, a local baseball
star, and Moskevich, the student representative to the City Council
whom friends called "the future mayor of Peabody." More than 1,000
people packed forums in Salem and Peabody last winter to listen to
experts and former addicts. Parents, politicians and police vowed not
to turn their backs on the problem.

One year later, the "epidemic," as Essex County District Attorney
Jonathan Blodgett called it, is still in his eyes the greatest threat
facing youth today. The commitment to fight the drugs is still strong,
but progress has been slow, and nobody knows if the steps that have
been implemented so far have had any impact.

"In terms of actual use and abuse, we haven't seen any marked
increase, but at the same time we haven't seen any marked decrease,"
said Paul O'Shea, president of Health and Education Services in
Beverly. "It took us a long time to get there, and it's going to take
a long time to have an effect." Last year's stories revealed that
young people were abusing OxyContin, a painkiller that is legal with a
prescription, by rubbing off the time-release coating to acquire an
instant high. They became addicted quickly, and many moved on to
heroin because OxyContin is so expensive. OxyContin can cost as much
as $80 per pill, compared to $5 for a bag of heroin. The biggest
accomplishment over the last year is that the "secret" of OxyContin
and heroin abuse is out.

"People realize this could happen to their kids," Blodgett said. But,
"we've still got a lot of work to do."

Maureen Hobin, a parent who serves on a task force in Beverly that
formed in response to The Salem News stories, said when she recently
spoke to the Kiwanis Club, almost everyone who asked a question knew
an addict. "Most of the questions started with, 'I have a cousin whose
son died of an overdose,' or 'I have a neighbor whose niece died of an
overdose,'" Hobin said. "They were real faces with real stories. They
could've asked questions for an hour." There have been other, more
concrete accomplishments:

* The DA launched an OxyContin and heroin
prevention education program. Blodgett's office introduced the
curriculum, called "Choose to Refuse," and hired former Salem School
Superintendent Herb Levine, whose son Joel is a recovering OxyContin
addict, to get it into the schools. Beverly High School is already
using the program as part of its Life Issues class for junior and
seniors. Levine said he expects every school system in Essex County to
start teaching the curriculum in September. "It gives students
concrete strategies through role-playing," Levine said. "It helps them
understand the kind of peer pressure they're going to experience and
to practice what to say in order to walk away from this stuff."

* Police are taking more OxyContin off the streets.

The county drug task force, comprised of 14 state troopers and local
police officers, confiscated 13,130 OxyContin tablets worth more than
$1 million in 2005 "" 16 times as many as in 2004.

The task force also confiscated more heroin in 2005 "" 78,326 bags,
worth approximately $390,000, compared with 60,629 in 2004. * A
residential treatment center for addicted teens opened in Danvers.
The state-funded center has room for 15 boys and is one of only four
adolescent treatment centers in the state. Families pay from $15 to
$150 per day depending on their income.

The only other alternatives for young addicts are private treatment
centers that charge $25,000 for a 30-day stay, said Kevin Norton, head
of CAB Health and Recovery Services, which runs the treatment center.
Norton said more prevention programs are needed. CAB used to spend $1
million a year on such programs. Due to budget cuts, he said, it now
spends nothing on prevention.

* Two drug companies signed a $400 million deal in November to design
an alternative to OxyContin that cannot be abused.

Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut company that makes OxyContin, has been
trying to develop abuse-resistant prescription painkillers since the
late 1990s. Now it has competition. Pain Therapeutics of San
Francisco and King Pharmaceuticals of Tennessee are testing a new
drug called Remoxy that could be on the market by late 2007,
according to Remi Barbier, president and CEO of Pain
Therapeutics.

* Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins launched a program for opiate
addicts in jail. The number of inmates held at Middleton Jail for
OxyContin and heroin-related offenses jumped 73 percent in the 2005
"" from 230 to 399. Cousins said the new program will help them
"re-enter society," find jobs and stay off drugs. * Three bills
pending in the state Legislature would require medical workers to
report overdoses.

Workers would have to report the overdoses to the state Department of
Public Health within 24 hours. The information would help authorities
get a handle on the severity of the problem and identify areas that
need more patrolling, Blodgett said.

Though the names of the drug users would not be revealed, some in the
medical community say it could deter addicts from getting help. "We
are still getting the numbers in a piecemeal fashion," Blodgett said.
"This legislation is so necessary."

* A state OxyContin commission was created. To learn the scope of the
problem, public hearings were held across the state. A report is
expected to be issued this spring. According to state Rep. Peter
Koutoujian of Waltham, who headed the effort, the commission will call
for the state to do a better job keeping track of doctors who
prescribe OxyContin.

Lawmakers believe OxyContin, a drug originally developed for
late-stage cancer and AIDS patients, is being doled out to people in
extreme pain, but also for lesser problems like pulled muscles or
tooth pain. They believe this increase in prescriptions resulted in a
rise in OxyContin's availability to addicts. "There will not be a call
to outlaw OxyContin," Koutoujian said. "There is no support for that.
There is a place for OxyContin. We just have to establish where that
place is."

The commission's report will also include a call for more treatment
facilities.

Moskevich agreed that addicts need more places to turn to for help. He
said the people who walk through the door where he works remind him of
himself two years ago. "They are me," he said.

Progress has been made in the fight against OxyContin and heroin
addiction, especially in terms of awareness, he said. But he also said
there is a need for more treatment options.

"The word's out now," he said. "Now we have to work on recovery. We
still need someone to get to the people who are on the streets and
need the help."