PRESCRIPTION DRUG WIDELY ABUSED

Oxycontin Shows Up In Metro Detroit

When police pulled over David Micoff after a pharmacy robbery this year near
Saginaw, a number of pills tumbled out of his car.

Micoff dropped to his hands and knees and started licking the drugs off the
pavement.

Micoff's obsession: OxyContin, a powerful prescription medicine approved by
the federal government to treat severe pain.

OxyContin also is known as hillbilly heroin because it has become a
substance of choice among drug abusers in rural areas, far from urban heroin
markets. But law enforcement officials say it is beginning show up in metro
Detroit.

"We think the OxyContin problem is going to become much worse," said Dana
Gire, prevention coordinator of the Macomb County Office of Substance Abuse.

Experts report at least 13 incidents this year in southeast Michigan in
which someone overdosed on OxyContin, tried to steal it or illegally
prescribed it. Two Lansing pharmacies stopped carrying OxyContin after
repeated robberies.

In Macomb County, police charged one man with attempting to concoct
OxyContin's key component in his basement with the intent of selling it
illegally.

In April, a 46-year-old Chesterfield Township woman, who police believe was
trying to get high, died when she overdosed on a variety of pills, including
several doses of her dying mother's OxyContin prescription.

In Wayne County, 13 people visited local emergency rooms because of
OxyContin, said Craig Yaldoo, director of the Michigan Office of Drug
Control Policy, though some of those cases could have been patients who
encountered problems with a legal prescription.

Some first-time abusers say they tried OxyContin because they believed
legitimate medication would be safer than heroin.

"There's a huge misconception that because it's a prescription drug, it
can't kill you," said Rich Issacson, a special agent with the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA).

"I think it might be the most glaring problem around the country. We don't
want it to take off here."

Abusers mostly obtain OxyContin by stealing it from pharmacies, falsifying a
doctor's prescription or by obtaining prescriptions from more than one
doctor.

Micoff, the 36-year-old Bay City man police say licked the drug off the
pavement, said he got hooked after taking it for legitimate medical needs.
He is serving a 3- to 15-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to
resisting arrest, obtaining a controlled substance through fraud and being a
habitual criminal. In Macomb County, officials charged a Shelby Township man
in May with manufacturing oxycodone -- OxyContin's key component -- in his
basement, with the intent to sell it. State and national officials say they
are not aware of any other cases of people making the substance in their
homes.

Police were called to the home of 42-year-old Brian Thomas Wells after a
neighbor expressed concern about a barking dog.

In the basement, officers discovered a small lab, including beakers, special
sinks and measuring tools. They also found a recipe for oxycodone, the
drug's active ingredient.

Wells is scheduled to appear Oct. 17 before a district court on charges of
controlled substance abuse and operating a lab near a residence. His lawyer,
Lawrence Bunting, could not be reached for comment.

Often police -- particularly smaller departments -- say they were not aware
of OxyContin abuse until they made their first arrest.

"I did not realize this was a problem for us until this case," said David
Portuesi, a Macomb County assistant prosecutor in charge of the county's
drug cases.

If swallowed in pill form, OxyContin works as a time-release capsule during
a 12-hour period. If the pill is crushed before being swallowed, it results
in a sudden, heroin-like rush.

In metro Detroit, OxyContin pills sell for between $25 and $40 each,
compared with about $10 for a tenth of a gram of heroin.

OxyContin abuse has been attributed to at least 100 deaths nationwide, eight
of which were in Michigan last year. The DEA says more than 10,000 people
went to hospitals during 2000 because they misused OxyContin.

Last year, the federal Food and Drug Administration discussed taking
OxyContin off the market because of the widespread abuse. The agency has
issued warnings about misusing the drug.

Purdue Pharma, the Stamford, Conn., manufacturer, is attempting to create an
abuse-resistant form of OxyContin.

A spokesman said 2 million people benefit from the drug every year. "We
don't want the tail wagging the dog when it comes to health care," said Dr.
J. David Haddox, a senior medical researcher for Purdue Pharma's Center for
Health Policy.

The DEA has created a National Action Plan to address the misuse of
OxyContin. And DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson has testified several times
on Capitol Hill about what his agency is doing to curtail the drug's abuse.

"We never want to deny deserving patients access to drugs that relieve
suffering and improve the quality of life," Hutchinson said in a March
speech.