Index -- Special On Opiate Use (Eagle-Tribune) --

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n042/a06.html

CARING PARENTS MORE POTENT THAN SMARTEST PILL

Sad really, that it's come to this, but Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut
firm that manufactures OxyContin, is spending $200 million in an attempt
to develop a "smart pill" that would prevent its pain medication
from being used illegally. The illegal use of the powerful prescription
painkiller has become a public relations and legal nightmare for the firm,
which, according to their representatives, is throwing all available
resources at thwarting potential abusers.

Those efforts, company officials told Eagle-Tribune editors last week,
include communitywide drug awareness programs, physician education
campaigns, cooperation with law enforcement personnel, high-tech caps that
would allow authorities to trace individual bottles of the medicine, and
research into new ways of administering the medication. The so-called
"smart pill" would allow the medicine to retain its effectiveness if taken
as prescribed, but contain a chemical which, if the pill were to be
crushed into a powder -- which is the way abusers prefer it in order to
get the maximum dosage in a minimum amount of time -- would render the drug
inert. Of course we liked best the solution suggested by Clay Yeager, the
director of community partnerships for Purdue, who said he was inspired by
a comment by the late Mother Teresa. Noting that unlike too many children
in Third World countries who experience malnutrition due to lack of food,
she had observed that American children seem to suffer from "malnutrition
of the heart." What's needed more than new formulas or public relations
campaigns, Yeager said, are parents who care and won't give up on their
children.