'HILLBILLY HEROIN' WREAKING HAVOC

Powerful Painkiller a Deadly Drug

A powerful painkiller that has already wreaked havoc among drug
addicts in Eastern Canada is starting to cause problems in Manitoba.

Two Brandon women died from overdoses last year believed to be related
to illegal use of oxycodone.

Often sold by the brand name OxyContin, it has been dubbed "hillbilly
heroin" because it is popular in rural areas where street heroin is
unavailable.

The drug is prescribed by doctors for serious chronic pain, often to
people with cancer. But drug dealers are getting hold of the pills and
selling them on the street for about $50 a pill.

John Borody, CEO of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, said the
agency had no clients addicted to oxycodone a year ago. Now up to a
dozen clients are using the drug to get high.

The synthetic opiate can be crushed, then snorted or diluted with
water and injected to produce a heroin-like euphoria. The number of
OxyContin prescriptions in Manitoba jumped from under 12,000 in 2003
to more than 16,500 in 2004, prompting a review by Manitoba Health.

The Manitoba drug standards and therapeutics committee received the
numbers in December and will make recommendations to Health Minister
Tim Sale. Extra monitoring may be needed to make sure drugs prescribed
by doctors are not fuelling the illegal trade.

Jack Rosentreter, executive director of the provincial drug program,
said it's possible the increase in prescriptions is related to the
province's new palliative care program, which helps people die at home.

Drugs given to patients who used to die in hospital would not show up
in the statistics, he said.

Since 2002, oxycodone or a combination of drugs including oxycodone
have been involved in six suicides and 13 accidental overdose deaths,
according to the office of Manitoba's chief medical examiner.

Brandon's Dr. Derry Decter told the Brandon Sun the drug is so
dangerous it should be banned. He said alternative drugs are available
for treating pain, including morphine. Brandon police linked the July
deaths of two women in their 30s to the drug, but Winnipeg police and
Manitoba RCMP have not yet encountered it during drug busts.