CANADIAN BORDER FUELS DOWN EAST DRUG EPIDEMIC

CALAIS, Maine (AP)-- Law enforcement authorities have long known that lots
of prescription opiates were flowing across the border into Maine.

But they didn't grasp the extent of the problem until last year when Purdue
Pharma began marking OxyContin pills sold in Canada, allowing law
enforcement officials to determine the source of the drugs they seize.

That's one of several steps Purdue Pharma has taken since the company has
come under fire for manufacturing the drug that's at the heart of
Washington County's drug abuse epidemic.

OxyContin is the brand name for a product designed to release the
painkiller OxyCodone into the bloodstream over 12 hours. Abusers can
circumvent the time release system by crushing the pills, then snorting or
injecting the drug for an immediate, heroin-like high.

Purdue Pharma has begun research on an abuse-resistant pill, but its
release is not imminent, said Jay McCloskey, the former top federal
prosecutor in Maine and now a consultant for the Stamford, Conn.-based company.

Purdue has stepped up efforts to educate doctors and the public about
prescription drug abuse, McCloskey said.

Purdue Pharma advocates mandatory prescription monitoring programs, already
implemented in 18 states, which track chronic-pain patients through central
databases accessible to doctors.

Maine lawmakers recently killed a bill that would have used monitoring to
cut down on doctor shopping for OxyContin and other prescription painkillers.

McCloskey is hopeful that the Legislature will revisit prescription
monitoring, but admits that Washington County's addicts could evade the
system unless similar controls were also implemented in New Brunswick.