CONGRESS TACKLES OXYCONTIN

A congressional panel announced Thursday that it will begin hearings
in February to investigate the growing national epidemic of OxyContin
addiction, abuse and overdoses.

The first hearing will take place in Orlando.

"Just the sheer number of problems related with the drug and the
number of deaths have reached epidemic proportions," said Rep. John
Mica, R-Winter Park, who cited a five-part October series on the
painkiller in the Orlando Sentinel in making his request for the hearings.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the House Criminal Justice, Drug
Policy and Human Resources subcommittee, said the first hearing would
be Feb. 9.

"The problem of illegal prescription-drug abuse is a serious one, and
one which the subcommittee that I chair will be examining closely in
the next session of Congress," Souder said.

"Although OxyContin has legitimate medical uses, we must remember that
it is an opiate like heroin, and thus can be both addictive and
deadly," he said. "As such, it should be treated with great caution.
We need to develop new ways to curb the growing abuse of OxyContin and
similar drugs through education about the health dangers of abuse and
through effective law-enforcement measures against illegal diversion."

The announcement came in the same week that Florida state Sen. Burt
Saunders, R-Naples, and Gov. Jeb Bush called for state investigations
into overprescribing of the powerful painkiller.

Jim Heins, a spokesman for Purdue Pharma, the Stamford, Conn.-based
maker of OxyContin, said, "We share the concerns about
prescription-drug abuse, including OxyContin, in Florida and elsewhere
in the country. That's why we support measures that help curb illegal
trafficking and abuse without restricting access to patients who need
these medications."

OxyContin was originally marketed for cancer pain and was approved in
1995 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for moderate to severe
pain. But the painkiller has come under fire because of nationwide
reports of abuse, addiction and overdose deaths.

Fred Pauzar of Winter Park, whose son Chris, 22, died of OxyContin
overdose Nov. 25, lauded Mica's announcement.

"By calling for congressional hearings into this matter, he is going
to save lives," said Pauzar, chief executive of Winter Park-based
Fugleberg Koch Architects and president of a Tallahassee lobbying firm.

"Congressman Mica has always shown integrity and courage," Pauzar
said. "At the same time, he is working to save tremendous resources
needed for other kinds of medical care," referring to estimated
millions spent in Medicaid payments for OxyContin being diverted to
illegal abuse.

Pauzar said his son, whose memorial service is scheduled for Saturday,
began taking OxyContin for a minor shoulder injury but quickly became
addicted. Chris Pauzar, who had just enrolled at the University of
Central Florida, went through detox and drug rehabilitation for the
morphinelike painkiller in September. But friends said Nov. 25 that he
commented, "One more time won't kill me."

In October, the Orlando Sentinel reported that deaths in Florida from
oxycodone, the key ingredient in OxyContin, are exceeding those from
heroin. Florida medical examiners reported 573 deaths caused by
oxycodone in 2001 and 2002.

In addition to reporting on the deaths and addiction linked to
OxyContin, the Sentinel also focused on Purdue Pharma's marketing of
its billion-dollar-producing drug. The paper's review of 500 available
autopsy results from 2001 and 2002 showed that OxyContin was named in
83 percent of the 247 cases in which a specific oxycodone medication
was identified.

Oxycodone, which comes from poppies as opium does, is in dozens of
other painkillers. The exact medication was not determined in the
remaining 253 deaths, including those still under criminal
investigation.

Mica said the Feb. 9 hearing would include input from state and
Central Florida law-enforcement and medical experts, Florida drug czar
Jim McDonough and others interested in the problems tied to OxyContin.
Mica said he and Souder would meet next week to iron out further
details of the investigation.

Another congressman, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., is expected to
release the results of a government report on the marketing of
OxyContin in the next few weeks.

Kay Kelley-Moretti of Milford, Conn., who led a protest at Purdue
headquarters after her son Jason Kelley died of accidental overdose
this year and who helped organize an Orlando rally two weeks ago, said
the hearings were a sign their voices had been heard.

"Our children who have died from the epidemic will never return," she
said. "Now we need every U.S. congressman in every state across this
nation to do the same [as Mica]." "These senseless deaths have got to
stop."