KILLER DRUG GOES UPSCALE

Oxycontin Goes From Streets to Suites

An alarming number of Bay State professionals - lawyers, plumbers,
construction workers and teachers - are getting hooked on OxyContin,
the Herald has learned.

Bay State counselors say some professionals are even taking the potent
pills at work. One treated a man who ground them up during coffee
breaks and knows of truck drivers with "Oxy habits."

Another has seen OxyContin addicts that could literally "buy and
sell" the clinics where they're getting treated.

"I've seen blue-collar workers, highly skilled professionals and
lawyers. You name it, and we've seen it," said Bob Potter, director
of development for Community Substance Abuse Centers.

"It just doesn't know any social class or economic level," Potter
said. "If you came to a clinic and looked at the cars in the parking
lots, you would be stunned."

In Massachusetts, fatal opiod overdoses, which include OxyContin and
heroin, have risen from 87 in 1990 to 429 in 2002, according to the
state Registry of Vital Statistics. The extremely addictive OxyContin
hit the market in 1996.

Cops and counselors today are dealing with a huge increase of teenage
and early 20-something OxyContin addicts, but are also seeing a
disturbing number of adult professionals getting hooked. Bank accounts
are being wiped out and families destroyed, they said.

"I've seen a lot of working-class people who do jobs that you
wouldn't particularly want them to take OxyContin while their doing
it," said D. Stewart Jester, a licensed mental health counselor in
Arlington.

"Some are doing it on the job," Jester said. "I'm very concerned
about it."

Many professionals get hooked after getting an "OC" prescription for
severe back pain, post-surgery pain and other ailments. The
time-released pills are designed to work over 12 hours, but when
chewed, crushed and snorted, abusers get a quick heroin-like high.
Others get it from co-workers and pals.

"What happens is, they might normally have gone out and gone drinking
to release stress from their jobs and they will take OxyContin or
snort OxyContin or shoot it up to get high instead of drinking,"
Jester said.

Mark Cassidy, 45, got hooked on OxyContin after it was prescribed to
him for back pain. The former florist was kicked out of his home and
sleeping in his car.

Cassidy, who has been drug-free for nearly three years, used to shop
around for different doctors to get a prescription.

"It consumes your life. That's what you do everyday," said Cassidy,
who now works as a counselor's aide at the Miller House on Cape Cod.

On the street, "OC's" sell for $1 a milligram or about $80 for an 80
milligram tablet. But when the money runs out, many addicts turn to
heroin, which sells for about $4 a bag and whose purity is stronger
than ever today. It also can be snorted.

Bay State officials fear a rise in burglaries and violent crime when
the price of heroin goes up.

State police Lt. Kenneth Gill said the OxyContin problem has created a
whole new generation of heroin users. He said OxyContin "doesn't
discriminate."

"We're seeing all different types of people that are using it," said
Gill, who is assigned to the Essex County District Attorney's office,
where cops have seen businessmen and homemakers at drug houses during
stakeouts.

Potter said OxyContin use in the Bay State is more widespread than
it's ever been.

"It's just flooded the communities," said Potter, whose center runs
10 methadone clinics in three states. "It's probably easier to get
OxyContin than a quality bag of marijuana in any community in
Massachusetts."

What is OxyContin?

One of the most effective pain relievers ever devised, OxyContin
(trade name oxycodone hydrochloride) has been prescribed for cancer,
back pain and other injuries since 1996.

An agonist opiod, it stimulates opiod receptors throughout the
central nervous system, creating sensations from pain release to
euphoria. The more you take, the better you feel until more is needed
to feel better, leading to powerful addiction.

To avoid the controlled-release mechanism in prescription pills,
abusers chew, snort or inject OxyContin to get an instant "high."

An 80 milligram tablet costs $6 legally and between $65 and $80 on the
street.

Nine percent of all Americans (19.9 million) have used pain relievers
illegally at some point in the lives, according to the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration.