OXYCONTIN STILL LEADS IN PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE

SARASOTA -- Local drug-prevention programs are expanding their focus beyond
alcohol and marijuana this fall to combat the rising trend of prescription
drug abuse.

"Drug abuse comes in fads, and right now any prescription use is popular,"
said Barbara Kochmit, prevention director at the Sarasota Coalition on
Substance Abuse.

A prescription painkiller, OxyContin, has been singled out as a threat.

According to a survey released in March, a higher percentage of middle and
high school students in Sarasota have tried OxyContin than in any other
county in Florida.

The 2002 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey reports that 5.9 percent of
students in grades six to 12 in Sarasota County say they have experimented
with the drug, compared with a 2.5 percent state average. Charlotte County
ranked third in students who have used the drug in the last 30 days, behind
Sarasota and Holmes counties.

Prevention specialists and law enforcement officials are focusing on
OxyContin and other prescription drugs such as Adderall and Vicodin in
presentations to parents and students.

OxyContin is the "up-and-coming drug," said Detective Chris Shaw of the
Sarasota Sheriff's Department. "A few years back it was ecstasy, but both
heroin and pills have filtered down."

In 2002, OxyContin was added as a new category in the survey administered
to about 1,000 students in Sarasota, Charlotte, and Manatee counties, and
to more than 60,000 students statewide. The survey asks students grades 6
to 12 questions about their alcohol, tobacco, and drug use.

Sgt. David Zachos, the school resource officer who monitors all of South
County, attributes the high rate of prescription drug abuse throughout the
county to a number of factors, including the prevalence of prescription
drugs, the affluence of the local population, and the large number of
residents receiving prescription drugs in Sarasota.

He adds, "There are just more prescriptions being written now, compared to
10 years ago."

"OxyContin and prescription drugs have taken over," said Detective Rich
Starowesky of the Sarasota County Sheriff's Department, who monitors Venice
High School. "We have a zero tolerance policy toward these drugs."

OxyContin, an opioid agonist with effects similar to morphine, was
introduced six years ago by Purdue Pharma LP. It is commonly prescribed to
alleviate moderate to severe pain in patients suffering from cancer or
spinal injury.

As sales have increased to $1.5 billion annually, OxyContin has gained
notoriety as the "poor man's heroin." On the streets the drug is also known
as "hillbilly heroin," "Oxy," and "Oxycotton."

"OxyContin became hot because it gave you a euphoria that lasted for
hours," said Edwin Hering, a former user who lives in North Port. Hering,
now 25, started using less potent painkillers like Vicodin before
progressing to OxyContin two years ago: "Because OxyContin is synthetic it
is so addicting. Within three days of using it you're hooked."

Hering recalls that the majority of people he bought from were high school
students. "A lot of times you wouldn't be able to hook up with anything
because these kids were still in school."

OxyContin is especially dangerous when it is mixed with alcohol and other
drugs, a cocktail that has often proved fatal. The Drug Enforcement
Administration has said OxyContin may have contributed to 464 deaths
nationwide in the past two years. The drug has been responsible for a
number of deaths in the county. In 2001 two men died of an OxyContin
overdose at Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey.

OxyContin abusers often grind the tablets into powder to disable the
time-release component before snorting or injecting the drug. This produces
an immediate high that is particularly dangerous as users overdose because
they are unprepared for the purity of the drug. One 80mg tablet of
OxyContin, $35-50 on the street, produces a high equivalent to or more
potent than that from a bag of heroin, according to Hering.

This February a Sarasota doctor, Bach McComb, was charged with trafficking
in OxyContin and other painkillers from his downtown office. The Florida
Department of Health suspended McComb's license on April 11, accusing him
of prescribing more than 32,000 doses of narcotic painkillers. Because of
such abuses, doctors and pharmacists are increasingly cautious when
dispensing the drug, according to Detective Shaw.

Because it is highly addictive, even patients who have received legitimate
prescriptions for OxyContin have found themselves hooked. Cheryl-Lynn
Montalvan-Velarde, a 38-year-old insurance agent who lives in Sarasota.
took the drug for a spinal injury. "It did work, but the side effects were
incredible," she said. "I ended up needing to detox and needed followup
psychiatric treatment."

Montalvan-Velarde has also had her OxyContin stolen from her. She said her
son's friends were attracted to her drugs and that one even asked, "Do you
know what those are worth?"

"Kids are stealing drugs from their parents and grandparents," said Lisa
Phillips, a prevention specialist at the Sarasota Coalition on Substance Abuse.

Kochmit, prevention director at the Sarasota Coalition on Substance Abuse,
says some patients are selling their OxyContin prescriptions to supplement
their income: "Grandma sells her medicine on the street for $50 a pill."

In 2001 during a federal hearing, the head of the Drug Enforcement
Administration accused OxyContin's maker, Purdue Pharma, of contributing to
the drug's disproportionate abuse by marketing it as less prone to abuse
than similar drugs.

That year, the company also launched its own prescription drug prevention
program called Painfully Obvious, which uses publications and radio ads to
educate the public on the dangers of prescription drug abuse.

Locally, through Painfully Obvious and other programs, school resource
officers are working to quash the myth among students that prescriptions
drugs are safe because they are legal. Charlotte County will disseminate
Purdue Pharma materials aimed at preventing OxyContin abuse among youths,
according to the county's director of drug prevention, Amity Chandler.

OxyContin was much easier to obtain in the past, before those in health
care began to realize the dangers of the drug, he said.

P.J. Brooks, Director of Adolescent Counseling Programs at First Step, a
rehabilitation clinic in Sarasota, said 75 percent of the youths admitted
to the program have abused prescription drugs.

"Abuse of prescription medications tends to be more prevalent in affluent
kids," Brooks said. He said that most kids try OxyContin in party
situations, warning that "summertime is upon us and you'll see more kids
experimenting."