OXYCONTIN PR

Heroin use has risen dramatically in Massachusetts, especially on the
North Shore, where law-enforcement officials say the prescription
opiate OxyContin, which is used to relieve chronic pain, has
functioned as a gateway drug. In fact, during the past several years,
the illegal use of OxyContin has exploded on the North Shore and
across the United States. And Salem Hospital psychologist Dan Jacobs
blames the media, sort of. "The rash of pharmacy break-ins a few
years back created a lot of OxyContin press," says the director of
mental health services for the partial hospitalization program at
Salem Hospital. "It created a marketing blitz. The demand for the drug
increased."

Jacobs is referring to a series of 14 robberies of pharmacies in
Boston and its suburbs during a six-week stretch in 2001. The robbers
ignored cash registers and other drugs and took only OxyContin.

The Boston-area holdups were part of a surge in OxyContin robberies
and thefts of drugstores in several states, including Maine, Vermont,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky, during 2001 and 2002.
Since then, the popularity of OxyContin - "It's fairly common now,"
says Jacobs - has continued to grow, although law-enforcement
officials have since taken steps to curb the number of drugstore
break-ins. The growing problem of opiate use, most notably heroin and
OxyContin, on the North Shore prompted Essex County District Attorney
Jonathan Blodgett and Sheriff Frank Cousins Jr. to hold a public
summit in January about matter. Among the guest speakers was Clay
Yeager, director of community partnerships for Purdue Pharma, a
pharmaceutical company that produces OxyContin.