FAMILIES BLAME ABUSE IN 2 DEATHS

Substance abuse experts say more must be done to educate consumers and
health care professionals about the proper use of narcotic painkillers,
which can be deadly if abused.

Here are two cases where OxyContin may have played a role in sudden deaths:

'She Couldn't Help Herself'

It's been seven months since Karen Wilkins fell asleep on a recliner in her
mother's house and never woke up.Wilkins, who lived near Durham, suffered
chronic back pain after a 1992 injury on the job in a supermarket. The pain
was so severe that after she sang in church, she'd sometimes crawl to the
car on her hands and knees.

Two years ago, her family says, a pain specialist prescribed OxyContin.

She died Dec. 11, 2001, a few weeks before her 41st birthday. Her family
suspects Wilkins started abusing OxyContin by crushing, then swallowing the
drug, ingesting 12 hours worth of powerful narcotic at once.

"She was addicted to OxyContin and she couldn't get off of it," says her
sister, Jackie George, who found Wilkins' OxyContin bottles in her medicine
bag. "She said the way to get faster relief was to chew them."

Wilkins' body was embalmed at the funeral home before an N.C. medical
examiner could take blood samples for toxicology tests. Those tests would
check for the presence of oxycodone, the main ingredient in OxyContin. Her
cause of death was listed as undetermined, though the investigative report
cites her possible OxyContin abuse.

"I think she got to the point where she couldn't help herself," George says.

Trying To Ease The Pain

Trina Howell married her high school sweetheart in 1998. Two years later
she buried him. "It's been the most trying time of my life," said Howell, 29.

Zane Massingale, 27, died Sept. 9, 2000, of an accidental drug overdose
after three years of severe back pain. The day before he died in Etowah,
just south of Asheville, he went to the hospital twice for back pain and
once after an automobile accident.

A medical examiner ruled his death accidental due to oxycodone toxicity.
Howell believes her husband, trying to ease his pain, mistakenly took too
many OxyContin pills.

Massingale's father, Spurgeon Massingale Jr., had used OxyContin as pain
medication for arthritis. He says he never gave pills to his son, but said
Massingale could have taken them without his knowledge. Massingale's
sister, Athena Justus, also said her brother might have taken the pills.

Massingale had applied for an insurance company job, which offered better
medical benefits for his bad back. Two days after his death, the insurance
company called. Massingale got the job.