MANSLAUGHTER CHARGES LAID AFTER TEENS' DRUG DEATHS

Ontario 18-year-old Accused Of Selling Powerful Painkillers To Two Young Men

A teenager from Timmins, Ont., was released on bail yesterday after being
charged with manslaughter in the deaths of two other teens who overdosed on
a heavy-duty pain reliever that they had taken illegally.

Andrew Tessier, 17, and Daniel Drouin, 19, both of Timmins, were found dead
in their beds last week.

"The lads went to sleep at home," said Timmons police Staff Sergeant Sandy
MacKinnon. "Relatives tried to wake them up and couldn't."

Police believe that 18-year-old Edward Oursien, who appeared in a Timmins
court yesterday, sold Mr. Tessier and Mr. Drouin the pills. Mr. Oursien
went to school with one of the victims.

The little red pills the youths ingested in the hours before their deaths
are believed to have been MS Contin, police said. It was developed by the
manufacturer of OxyContin, the drug known as "hillbilly heroin" that has
been linked to hundreds of overdose deaths across Canada.

Like OxyContin, MS Contin is a slow-release analgesic. It is a morphine
pill, which OxyContin is not, and it is less prevalent than its more
controversial counterpart. But it is apparently just as deadly when used
incorrectly.

MS Contin is usually given to people who are dying and in severe pain,
Staff Sgt. MacKinnon said. "These were 200-milligram caplets. That is an
extremely high dosage of morphine, especially if you take those little
caplets and break them up into powder or chew them."

The caplets were developed by their U.S. manufacturer, Perdu Pharma, to be
swallowed whole. That way they break down gradually and the pain-relief
medicine is released slowly into the system. But drug abusers can bring
about a quick high by biting into them, releasing the active ingredients
all at once and rendering them potentially lethal, said Enid Harrison,
director of public relations and marketing at the Canadian Centre on
Substance Abuse.

The same is true of OxyContin, a drug Staff Sgt. MacKinnon has encountered
with some frequency. "They're a big problem all over the country," he said.

Ms. Harrison said "it's too early to say this is a drug of choice of kids."
Alcohol, marijuana and a host of other banned substances are still far more
popular.

But Nova Scotia is drafting legislation for a prescription-monitoring plan
after 22 deaths were attributed to abuse of prescription drugs, including
OxyContin, over the same number of months. And a provincial task force in
Newfoundland has reported increasing abuse of the analgesic among teenagers.

A 17-year-old student from southern Ontario, who is familiar with the
illegal drug culture in that region, said yesterday that OxyContin is
widely available on the street though relatively uncommon in high schools.
And while it was once obtained from the drug companies it is now made by
underground manufacturing rings.

"It's more popular with people in their 20s," he said. "It's a little more
expensive so it's more for people with a little higher income."

OxyContin contains oxycodone, which is found in the prescription painkiller
Percocet, the student explained, adding that "oxycodone is pretty popular
with people because they can take quite a bit. It's kind of like a
synthetic heroin."

Its popularity is a concern for police officers like Constable Marilyn
Cameron of the East Algoma detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police. She
said a guidance counsellor from a high school in Blind River called her
last week to say a student had fallen ill and had confessed that he had
taken a little red pill.

"The description that he gave was very close to the description in
Timmins," Constable Cameron said. The police urged that the student (who
could not be named because of confidentiality concerns) get to a hospital
and he has since recovered.

But the other students in that Blind River school were warned over the
school's loudspeaker to avoid any little red pills. And the vice-principal
at another local school learned of the situation just as her students were
boarding their buses to go home and warned them about the pills, Constable
Cameron said.

"She wanted to put the warning out there: 'Don't take anything if you don't
know what it is.' "