NO STOPIN' AND SHOPIN' FOR OXYCONTIN

Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. has pulled the powerful painkiller OxyContin
from its pharmacy shelves because of a wave of robberies involving the drug.

"Stop & Shop is committed to providing for the needs of our customers, but
not at the expense of the safety of our customers and associates," the
Quincy-based company said in a press release.

The company said it would advise customers who are taking OxyContin of the
new policy, and would still fill certain prescription orders through a drug
wholesaler.

Stop & Shop has 226 pharmacies and 322 stores in Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York. The company said its
decision "comes after the number of robberies in drug stores throughout the
region has continued to escalate."

Thieves in search of OxyContin have hit drug stores all over the state in
the past two years.

The most recent robbery in MetroWest occurred earlier this month in
Wayland. An unarmed man stole 200 OxyContin pills from Brooks Pharmacy on
Main Street.

Last month, two men stormed the Walgreens drug store on Rte. 9 in
Framingham, the second OxyContin-related crime there in six months.

"We stand to have more robberies in 2002 than in 2001," said Alan Schubin,
president of the Massachusetts Pharmacists Association.

The Waltham-based association says individual drug stores or pharmacy
chains should be allowed to decide for themselves whether they should stock
OxyContin. But, Schubin noted, the group is "painfully aware" of patients'
need for the drug.

OxyContin is the trade name for the compound oxycodone hydrochloride. If
the tablets are taken as prescribed and swallowed, the synthetic morphine
controls pain for up to 12 hours.

Drug abusers typically chew the tablets or crush them and inhale the powder
to get a heroin-like high. A recent U.S. Department of Justice report
estimates a bottle of OxyContin tablets sold in pharmacies for about $400
could fetch up to $4,000 on the street.

According to Schubin, the state pharmacy board recently nixed its policy
requiring pharmacies to carry OxyContin. The board adopted the policy last
year amid a rash of OxyContin robberies.

Officials at the pharmacy board could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Schubin said a recent change in federal law allows pharmacists to fax
orders for OxyContin to wholesalers. Deliveries may take several days, but
customers do have access to other painkillers in the meantime, he said.

James Heins, a spokesman for Purdue Pharma, which manufactures OxyContin,
said the Stamford, Conn.-based company hoped to meet with Stop & Shop
officials to negotiate a solution.

"We understand Stop & Shop's concerns about pharmacy and customer safety,"
he said. "But we're also very concerned about the well-being of patients
who need this medication for pain.

"It's a situation where criminal activity is determining the medical care
of patients with pain," Heins said. "We as a company are not going to
tolerate that."

Shaw's Supermarkets Inc. of West Bridgewater also said it will rely on
wholesaler deliveries to supply its pharmacy customers with OxyContin.

"That was our original position," said spokesman Bernard Rogan, noting the
West Bridgewater-based chain for months has been meeting only the minimum
stocking standard set by the state. Shaw's has 185 stores, including Star
Market stores, across New England.

Last month, Scarborough, Maine-based supermarket chain Hannaford Bros. Co.
pulled OxyContin from its pharmacies after a man robbed one of its Shop 'n
Save stores of several tablets of OxyContin and Dilaudid, another addictive
pain killer.