DRUGGISTS GIVE THEIR ACCOUNTS IN TRIAL

Three Said They Saw Unusual Requests For Two Substances. A Bucks Doctor Is
Charged.

For one Fishtown pharmacist, it was an unexpected, summer flurry of
prescriptions for strong, seldom-requested drugs.

For another, it was a visit from four men with identical slips for the same
drugs - OxyContin and Xanax - and the way they giggled when questioned
about the prescribing doctor.

A third pharmacist, in Bensalem, noticed a similar increase in demand and a
new, curious clientele with addresses miles away in Philadelphia.

What the three men were seeing, prosecutors contend, were signs of a
growing black market in OxyContin and Xanax - one that flooded the streets
of Philadelphia's river wards with the addictive prescription drugs in late
2000 and early 2001.

The pharmacists' accounts came during the first full day of testimony in
the trial of Richard G. Paolino, the Bensalem doctor accused of being the
Philadelphia area's chief supplier of illicitly obtained OxyContin.

Paolino, 58, is on trial in Bucks County Court after a series of
postponements. Prosecutors say he needlessly prescribed OxyContin and Xanax
to addicts and street dealers, all without a medical license.

Also on trial is Philadelphia physician Wesley Collier, 52, accused of
helping Paolino by signing hundreds of blank prescriptions for him to complete.

OxyContin is a powerful narcotic made in time-release tablets that addicts
abuse by crushing and snorting for a heroin-like high. Its abuse has been
blamed for dozens of deaths in this area, but Paolino has not been linked
to any of them.

Between Nov. 1, 2000, and Feb. 1, 2001, Paolino wrote at least 1,200
prescriptions for OxyContin, investigators say.

According to pharmacist Ronald Hyman, the wave of prescriptions from
Paolino's Hulmeville Road practice began months earlier.

In July, Hyman testified, he began getting 10 to 15 prescriptions per week
for OxyContin and Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug. Before that, he had only
rarely seen OxyContin requests.

Worse, Hyman said, the prescriptions called for large doses that "would
pretty much knock [the users] for a loop, so that they wouldn't know
whether they were coming or going."

But when he called Paolino to question the prescriptions, Hyman said,
Paolino "basically told me to mind my own business. If I didn't want to
fill it, don't fill it, and he would tell the patients where [else] to go."

Hyman said he refused to fill any prescriptions written by Paolino and
wound up calling federal drug agents, who began an investigation.

In another Fishtown pharmacy, Robert Horton was also noticing suspicious
prescriptions from Paolino's practice.

One day, Horton testified, four men in their 20s came in with prescriptions
for OxyContin and Xanax.

"I laid [the drugs] out in front of them and said, 'Doesn't this tell you
something about the doctor?' " Horton recalled. "And they just started to
giggle."

Horton, too, said he refused to fill Paolino's prescriptions. He also
called federal drug agents when Paolino failed to return his repeated phone
calls.

In Bensalem, pharmacist Stephen Chesin worked close enough to Paolino's
office to have filled many of his patients' prescriptions. But toward the
end of 2000, he said, he was getting more demands for OxyContin and Xanax,
mostly from unfamiliar customers who lived in Philadelphia.

"I don't believe I filled those," Chesin testified. "I returned them to the
presenters."

At the same time, Paolino's practice was seeing a surge in new
"pain-management" patients, testified Catherine Helmlinger, a nurse who
worked for Paolino for 18 years.

Meanwhile, state regulators yanked Paolino's medical license in November
2000 because he had not maintained malpractice insurance. In January 2001,
he temporarily hired two Philadelphia doctors - Collier and David Harmon -
to help him maintain his practice.

According to prosecutors, the two saw no patients, but signed hundreds of
blank prescriptions for Paolino.

Harmon, 53, pleaded guilty in February to practicing without a license,
delivering a controlled substance, and conspiracy. While not yet sentenced,
he agreed to testify.

Harmon confirmed yesterday that he signed the blank forms, but said he
didn't realize it was illegal. The only thing that gave him pause, Harmon
said, was the amounts of the drugs Paolino was prescribing.

"It was way beyond what I was comfortable with," Harmon said. "I told him
he needed to wean those patients down."