A HIGH PREMIUM ON TRUTH, A LIFELONG DREAM REALIZED

In a meticulously reported five-part series this past week, readers
learned of a rash of addiction and deaths from oxycodone, the active
ingredient in OxyContin and other drugs.

It was not, as one anonymous caller to the Sentinel suggested, an
opportunistic response to radio commentator Rush Limbaugh's recent
admission of his addiction.

On the contrary, reporter Doris Bloodsworth had been poring over
thousands of pages of documents and interviewing dozens of people for
the previous nine months to determine what was causing so many people
to die.

"I was prepared to write that OxyContin and Purdue [Pharma, the drug's
manufacturer] have been maligned unfairly," she said, describing her
attitude going into the project.

It didn't turn out that way.

In examining numerous autopsy and police reports from throughout
Florida, she found that more people had died from using oxycodone in
2001 and 2002 than from heroin. And OxyContin was the drug identified
in about 83 percent of the 247 cases linked to a specific medication.

That's the kind of investigative work that comes, as a rule, only from
seasoned journalistic veterans -- and you might regard Bloodsworth as
that. But she didn't come to that point by the usual route.

She describes herself as having been "a mom with a word processor" who
always wanted to be a reporter -- even as young as 5, when she won a
short-wave radio for printing her name correctly on a slip in a
grocery-store writing contest. She places a high premium on truth,
explaining that her parents impressed upon her that "most important of
all was to be honest."

But after growing up in Groveland in the 1960s, marrying her high-
school boyfriend and having two children, she decided that the dream
of becoming a reporter was just that: a dream.

Bloodsworth held a variety of jobs -- secretary, parent-resource-center
worker and airlines reservation clerk. She was happy but said she
thought to herself, "It looks like I'll never get to be a reporter."

It wasn't until the '90s -- with son, Derek, and daughter, Jenifer,
grown -- that husband, John, encouraged her to embark on a path that
would take her first to the University of Central Florida, then on to
a journalism degree from the University of Florida.

Her maturity, though, bought her no advantage. Like other recent
graduates, she had to pay her dues, serving internships and working as
a newsroom clerk before eventually realizing her dream of becoming a
reporter for the Sentinel.

This past week's series demonstrates what she did with that
opportunity.

As Bloodsworth reported Thursday, Purdue Pharma has challenged the
truth of some elements of her reporting. That is not unexpected in any
investigative project.

The company's points will receive full consideration, as Bloodsworth
agrees they should.

"In the home I grew up in," she said, "you would not think of telling
a lie."