OXYCONTIN SUSPECTED IN AT LEAST TWO LOCAL DEATHS

The arrest last week of a Boone County couple charged with providing
Oxycontin to their teenage son is part of a nationwide increase in reported
abuse of the prescription painkiller.

William and Wanda Lemens of 440 E. Clearview Road each have been charged
with distribution of a controlled substance. Sheriff's deputies arrested
them Wednesday afternoon after Columbia school officials and Columbia
police notified deputies there was evidence the couple was giving their
15-year-old son Oxycontin.

Their son was taken into custody by juvenile authorities.

Oxycontin "is a great drug for people in pain," said Eddie Adelstein,
deputy medical examiner for Boone County. The drug is properly administered
as a pill, but it can result in "a substantial rush, and with it a risk of
death" if the pills are crushed for inhalation or injection.

The drug is highly addictive and can be deadly when mixed with other
substances, such as alcohol.

Oxycontin is suspected of contributing to recent deaths in Boone County. On
Aug. 12, a 40-year-old man was found dead in his Paquin Tower apartment,
where he lived alone. He had fallen in a bathtub, and there was a cut on
his head, but a bottle of prescribed Oxycodone - a form of Oxycontin - was
missing more pills than it should have been.

Dori Burke, an investigator with the medical examiner's office, said that
man had been discharged a day earlier from a hospital with the drug, which
was prescribed for pain control.

Four days later, Burke said, a Columbia woman discovered her 44-year-old
husband lying dead in their bathroom. Investigators found in his belongings
two bottles of Oxycontin that were prescribed to another person.

Both investigations await laboratory findings that could confirm Oxycontin
contributed to their deaths, Burke said.

"Those deaths that occur are typically accidental," sheriff's Sgt. Tom
Reddin said. "It's not suicidal. There's been no crime linked to the deaths."

A National Household Survey on Drug Abuse conducted by the federal
government and released Thursday indicated that last year nearly 1 million
people in the nation reported using Oxycontin for nonmedical purposes at
least once in their lifetime, compared to 399,000 admitted users a year
earlier.

"We have a large and growing denial gap when it comes to drug abuse and
dependency in this country," John Walters, director of National Drug
Control Policy, said in a prepared statement.

"We have a responsibility as family members, employers, physicians,
educators, religious leaders, neighbors, colleagues and friends to reach
out to help these people. We must find ways to lead them back to drug-free
lives," he said.

The national survey also found that:

- -- 15.9 million Americans 12 and older used an illicit drug in the month
before the survey interview. That represents 7.1 percent of the population
in 2001, compared to 6.3 percent a year earlier.

- -- More youngsters age 12 through 17 reported using drugs last year, 10.8
percent compared to 9.7 percent in 2000.