ANGUISHED COUPLE TOOK ULTIMATE STEP TO SHAKE DRUGS' TERRIBLE GRIP

Despite being trapped in the throes of a powerful addiction to
painkillers, William Curry and his bride kept their vows to stay
together until death's parting kiss.

So even when OxyContin, the addictive painkiller the couple hoped
would end their misery, failed to kill Curry in a double-suicide
attempt in March 2004, the groom didn't kick drugs or the idea of
taking his own life. "They didn't want to deal with the drugs
anymore. They wanted to die together and be buried together," said
Curry's mother, Jean Sammelselg. Curry, 32, and his bride Tracy
Spencer-Curry, 34, would have celebrated their second wedding
anniversary yesterday.

Instead, they're entombed in Dorchester. "I hope if you ever have
children you don't have to listen to them tell you that they are
going to kill themselves and how to take care of it," said
Sammelselg, 58.

Little did Sammelselg know burying her daughter-in-law would just be
the beginning. A month after Curry's first suicide attempt failed,
Sammelselg called Magellan Behavorial Health Inc., a care provider
for Blue Cross Blue Shield of New England, looking for longterm care
for her son.

"She told me he's just an addict . . . 'I will not approve of him
going into longterm care. He'll do outpatient like anyone else,' "
Sammelselg recalled.The state does have an appeal process through the
Office of Patient Protection, but Sammelselg was not aware of the
office. All told, Curry, a truck driver who started taking OxyContin
after injuring himself on the job in 2001, was admitted to the
hospital six times after his bride died.

During that same period, Curry attempted suicide twice and started
using heroin, despite repeated attempts to get help. Last October, a
fatal dose of heroin killed him.

"It's sad and it shouldn't be going on. The government and the
insurance companies, they don't care," Sammelsleg said.

A spokeswoman for Blue Cross Blue Shield expressed sympathy and
declined further comment citing federal patient privacy laws. A
substance abuse parity bill pending in the state Legislature, which
would prohibit insurers from imposing benefit limits on substance
abuse patients, may have helped Curry.

"Substance abuse is one of the few or only diagnoses that has limits
like this. With Alzheimer's, heart disease and diabetes, I don't
think they say you have 30 days and $500. With substance abuse they
do," said David Matteodo, executive director of the Massachusetts
Association of Behavioral Health Systems.