HILLBILLY HEROIN

Powerful Painkiller OxyContin Finding Its Way As A Street Drug

Alice has watched her sister battle addictions for several years but
nothing has had the same hold over Barbara as a powerful painkiller known
on the streets as "hillbilly heroin."

Alice, a Grande Prairie resident who didn't want her full name used, has
spent the last few months watching Barbara slip under the spell of the
drug, which is normally prescribed by doctors but has recently found its
way to the streets.

OxyContin was originally developed to treat terminally ill cancer patients
and those suffering from debilitating chronic pain, but is now being
prescribed much more widely. Made by Purdue Pharma, OxyContin is a
synthetic opiate considered as addictive as morphine.

"Why not find out what that pain is instead of prescribing something so
potentially dangerous? She doesn't want to talk about it to us at all,"
Alice said of her 46-year-old sister who has been living in Peace River.

"She was in really bad shape. She was really out of it," Alice said of the
day Barbara was discovered early in July after a near-fatal overdose. "We
found some bottles of pills. She was admitted to the hospital as an
overdose but was released after a week, which is unfortunate. As far as we
know about the overdose, she tried to commit suicide with pills. The pieces
are starting to slide together."

OxyContin was dubbed "hillbilly heroin" for its popularity in rural areas
with lesser access to street drugs.

According to Barb Robbins, supervisor of counselling and prevention
services at AADAC, OxyContin doesn't have a high profile in the city but
it's something counsellors are going to keep an eye on.

"I wouldn't say it's something really common around here. We've had some
but it's not something we see a lot of," she said. "Like other things, we
see a smattering here and there but nothing alarming. It is going to be
something to watch for."

For Alice, her brother and another sister, watching Barbara hit rock bottom
has been the hardest part of the whole ordeal.

"Barbara has deteriorated so badly that she's 46 but looks at least 10
years older. She's thin and gaunt and looks as though she's had a hard
life. She has," Alice said. "Barbara has only ever hurt Barbara. She
doesn't hurt other people but we're trying to help her. She's turning this
into something horrible that we're doing to her and all we want to do is help.

"There's nothing I can do. She's just not coming clean. This stuff is not
taking her pain away, it's just creating more pain. It changes her mood and
throws her into a severe depression, which is a heck of a state to be in
all the time. It's such an extreme drug. When it's handed out by a doctor
it needs to be supervised really closely. A lot of eyes need to be opened
that this is a problem."

Denise Wilson, a pharmacist at Shopper's Drug Mart in the Prairie Mall,
says OxyContin is often prescribed by doctors for patients with a lot of
pain but it's no more potent in small doses than long-acting morphine
tablets that doctors have been prescribing for years.

"It's something that is fairly common. It's hard to say if it has increased
in the last few years but we do see it for people dealing with extreme
pain," she said. "Ideally, it's something taken twice daily and lasts for
about 12 hours.

"Certainly there have been situations where it's being abused and people
are trying to obtain it fraudulently but we don't see much of that."

OxyContin has been called a wonder drug since it hit the market 10 years
ago for its time-release properties and ability to relieve serious, chronic
pain. The drug is currently being blamed for more than 250 overdose deaths
in Ontario since 1998.