'LITTLE BLUES' IN THE BIG CITY

The Drug Became Known As 'Hillbilly Heroin': A High-Powered Opiate
Readily Available in the Woods of Rural America

"Hillbilly heroin" was the name that stuck, but there's mounting
evidence to suggest OxyContin's fan base reaches far beyond the
Ozarks. Police in both the U.S. and Canada are uncovering increasing
numbers of OxyContin trafficking rings in metropolitan centres, while
big-city doctors are accused of writing fake prescriptions for the
painkiller. And -- as with practically anything you shoot or snort --
celebrity abusers are helping push the drug into the spotlight.

Its best-known abuser may be Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio host
who railed against drugs (insisting, among other things, that addicts
should be jailed) before admitting his own addiction to painkillers
last October. His former housekeeper, who served as his drug
connection, says Limbaugh was particularly attached to OxyContin,
referring fondly to the pills as "little blues." Rocker Courtney Love
also told police she was on the drug when she was arrested that same
month outside her ex-boyfriend's house, and is now facing unrelated
charges of illegal possession of prescription drugs. There's even a
rock 'n' roll song about OxyContin: Hillbilly Junk is a tinny,
rollicking paean to the analgesic that appears on a recently released
album by Paul Westerberg, former front man for the Replacements.

OxyContin still has nowhere near the street popularity of cocaine and
heroin. But one recent case in Toronto illustrates the changes afoot:
a 57-year-old doctor, Ravi Devgan, is accused of faking prescriptions
so pills could be diverted to illegal users. At his trial last week,
prosecutor Moiz Rahman warned the jury to forget their Hollywood
notions of the drug trade -- of white powder in bags and briefcases
full of money. "The tools of the trade here," he said, "are a white
lab coat, a pen and preprinted pieces of white paper."