HOOKED AND DYING

We urge you to read the series of stories beginning on the front page of
today's newspaper. In them you'll learn that the Carolinas have the dubious
distinction of setting a national pace with a serious new drug problem.

The problem involves the prescription painkiller OxyContin, which changed
the drug market in 1996 by giving relief more powerful and longer-lasting
than most other prescription narcotics. For people with chronic and serious
pain it's a miracle drug. But it's also powerfully attractive to abusers --
easier to get than heroin, cheaper than cocaine, gentler on the stomach
than alcohol or other prescription narcotics.

Use -- and abuse -- have exploded in the Carolinas. Observer reporters
found that since 2000, OxyContin abuse may have caused or contributed to at
least 97 overdose deaths, a toll far higher than was previously known.
OxyContin addiction has overwhelmed drug detox centers that already were
short on space, staff and services. Experts say abuse of the drug is now
reaching young people.

In some areas of the Carolinas, OxyContin distribution is among the
heaviest in the nation. Some of the increase can be attributed to the
drug's growing popularity among pain patients, but as use of OxyContin
spread, so did crime and abuse.

Addicts steal to fund their habit, or steal the drug itself. Last month in
Columbus County, police sought 32 people accused of selling their Medicaid
cards to drug dealers who then billed state government for thousands of
dollars in OxyContin prescriptions.

For reasons legitimate and otherwise, the cost of OxyContin to Carolinas
taxpayers is soaring. North Carolina Medicaid paid $14.3 million for
OxyContin prescriptions in 2001, nearly three times higher than in 1999. In
the same period, South Carolina's bill increased almost eightfold, to $8.4
million.

At least nine doctors in two pain clinics have been accused of
inappropriately prescribing OxyContin and other narcotic painkillers. In
one high-profile case, Dr. Joseph Talley of Grover lost his medical license
this year. He's been linked to the deaths of 23 patients who overdosed on
OxyContin or other narcotics he prescribed. If Dr. Talley is charged
criminally, his case would likely be the largest of its kind in the nation.

Other prescription drugs have caused difficulties, for law enforcement and
health officials, but the OxyContin problem is new in scope and severity.
Data on deaths in the Carolinas suggest that a number of recreational users
died after a single encounter.

The stories tell about tragedies of addiction and death, and about the
tricky effort of law enforcement to crack down on abuse without limiting
the supply of OxyContin to people who need it. But the stories also show
possible solutions. Today's installment tells of one that ought to be
simple -- a statewide information network to spot suspicious levels of
prescription drug activity.

The problem is both grave and urgent. Law enforcement and health officials
in the Carolinas have work to do.