DRUG SCOURGE

In the second installment of a series, stories on the front page of today's
newspaper detail the spread of a dangerous new drug problem in the
Carolinas, the reasons behind it, and the urgent need to bring it under
control.

At issue is 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.

Law enforcers say abuse of few other prescription drug has caused such
desperation among addicts. Vignettes in today's stories detail the pain it
causes. One addict spent $1,200 a day for it. Another traded a truck for
five pills. A mother was arrested after forging 60 prescriptions.

The drug is beginning to reach young people, who mistakenly think it's safe
because it's prescription medicine. "They think the government regulates
those, so they're not going to get hurt," says a Myrtle Beach detective.

And pushers are eager to ply a very profitable trade. The federal Drug
Enforcement Administration investigated a pain clinic in Myrtle Beach that
was selling so liberally that people car-pooled to it across the region.

Patients in the lobby needed only to raise their hands to get a
prescription filled. The clinic then billed private insurance and Medicaid
for office visits and medical tests that were unnecessary or never
performed at all.

Meanwhile, part of the blame, say some doctors, addiction experts and law
enforcement, lies with Purdue Pharma, the drug's manufacturer. The head of
the DEA testified in Congress last December that Purdue has contributed to
the disproportionate abuse of OxyContin by representing the drug as having
a lower abuse potential than other narcotic pain relievers, and encouraging
physicians to use OxyContin over less addictive painkillers.

The company, Purdue Pharma, insists that its marketing is proper and notes
that it has no law enforcement authority.

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. Data suggest that a number of recreational users died
after a single encounter. OxyContin addiction has overwhelmed drug detox
centers that already were short on space, staff and resources. And costs to
state governments are 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.

Authorities have struggled gamely with the problem, but more work is needed
in public education, training for the medical community and regional
monitoring of prescription abuse. This potent drug is seriously out of hand.