GRANNY IS A JUNKIE

January 23, 2003 -- An accused pill-pushing granny is also a pill-
popper who needs help - but her lawyer says he's having trouble
finding the right rehab for a Russian-speaking grandma who swallows
200 pills a month.

"She doesn't use cocaine or heroin. She uses painkillers," defense
lawyer Joseph Mure Jr. said, "and she has mental health problems."

The granny, Roza Shusterman, 80, showed up in Brooklyn Supreme Court
yesterday - with a cane instead of her trademark walker - prepared to
admit guilt in the prescription-drug-sale case provided she'd go into
a program instead of prison, Mure said.

"We're hoping to work out a deal," he said. "We're hoping to come to a
reasonable disposition that both sides can live with. We're hoping to
get her help, which we think she needs."

Shusterman and another Russian grandma, Faina Kodner, 78, were busted
in May for allegedly selling prescription painkillers out of their
apartments in the same Brighton Beach building.

Prosecutors say they were independently peddling Hydromorphone, a
painkiller for cancer patients - often used by addicts as a substitute
for heroin - at $10 a pop.

Shusterman - who suffers from cancer, diabetes, heart problems and
lung problems as well as vascular dementia and depression with anxiety
- - takes about 200 pills monthly.

Her lawyer says in court documents the pills were prescribed to combat
her various ailments, but yesterday he said she's addicted to
Dilaudid, which has been called "drugstore heroin" on the street.

When court personnel interviewed her about drug use yesterday,
Shusterman - who sported a helmet of gray hair - told them she didn't
use coke or smack, and they deemed her ineligible for a program, Mure
said.

"We're looking for a program that deals with mental health problems,
but [one that has] a Russian-speaker," he said.