POTENT PAINKILLER OXYCONTIN DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD

The U.S. Senate Committee on Health and Education hearings to examine the
risks and benefits of the drug OxyContin were of special importance to
Southwest Virginia. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Art Van Zee, a Lee County,
Va., physician, the public has a better understanding of this relatively
new and often abused drug. Dr. Van Zee believes that OxyContin's harm
outweighs its benefits by light-years.

There are those who would agree with Dr. Van Zee. First introduced to the
market in December 1995, OxyContin has been a factor in the deaths of more
than 30 in Virginia and at least 120 nationally. According to Van Zee,
OxyContin abuse has reached epidemic proportions and he has urged, through
a petition drive, that the Food and Drug Administration recall the
synthetic morphine until it can be reformulated to make it less prone to abuse.

In the last couple of years, in particular, OxyContin has caught the
attention of many in Southwest Virginia, where its sale and abuse have
become a near constant of news reports.

Only last year, the Wise County Commonwealth Attorney's Office announced a
major OxyContin crackdown, charging 42 people with 88 counts of illegal
drug activity. Of those, about 50 dealt specifically with OxyContin. A
study of Lee County High School students indicated 20 percent of seniors
had tried the heroin-like drug.

OxyContin's sales have already surpassed the $1 billion mark. To put that
in perspective, that puts OxyContin's sales ahead of the much-publicized
drug Viagra.

While OxyContin has been a godsend to thousands in great pain, its success
has created special problems. The Drug Enforcement Administration says no
other prescription drug in the last 20 years has been illegally abused by
so many people so soon after it appeared.

Oddly enough, OxyContin was originally thought to be less prone to abuse
because its narcotic was locked in a time-release formula so that it
wouldn't give drug abusers the quick high they seek. But drug abusers have
discovered that the time-release element can be defeated simply by crushing
the tablet. It is then inhaled, injected or swallowed.

Unlike so many illegal drugs, OxyContin should be relatively easy to
police. It is supposedly strictly monitored by state and federal health
officials, from its production to its distribution.

Since OxyContin cannot legally be obtained without a doctor's prescription,
it seems much of the abuse stems directly from the actions of unscrupulous
or negligent physicians. Indeed, in Southwest Virginia, several physicians
have been charged with illegally prescribing the drug.

While it would be a shame to have such a potent pain-killing drug taken off
the market due to misuse and fraud, OxyContin's abuse is growing almost by
the day, as is the crime that generates.

In medicine, the first law is to do no harm. While every drug can and has
been misused to one extent or another, abuse of OxyContin is a crisis.
Until better safeguards can be put in place or a reformulated version of
OxyContin can be manufactured which is less prone to abuse, the drug ought
to be severely restricted or shelved.

Comment on this article with a letter to the Your View section of the
Times-News.