HOW ALIKE ARE OXYCONTIN CASES?

SHELBY - Dr. Joseph Talley said he did not sleep well the night he got the
news that pain doctor Dr. James Graves had been convicted on four counts of
manslaughter in a Florida court.

Graves will be sentenced on March 19 and faces 165 years in prison if the
judge gives him the maximum sentence.

He was convicted of manslaughter for prescribing the painkiller OxyContin -
and other narcotics - that led to the overdose deaths of four patients.
Graves is the first physician in the nation to be convicted of such charges.

Dr. Talley acknowledged similarities between his prescribing practices and
Dr. Graves'.

"This is one more Joe that had compassion for people and is paying for it,"
Talley said. "Our practices are a lot alike. I hope his records were
terrible or something."

OxyContin and Xanax were the drugs most often prescribed by both
self-appointed pain doctors. Both doctors say they would listen to patients
describe their pain, and prescribe pills with no other modality of pain
management offered.

And according to Dr. Talley, his wife and Alicia Graves, Dr. Graves' wife,
chat on the Internet almost nightly.

However, similarities between the two doctors seem to end there.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement started investigating Dr. Graves
in mid-1999. The investigation led to Graves being charged with four counts
of criminal manslaughter, unlawful delivery and racketeering. The federal
Drug Enforcement Agency was not involved in the investigation.

The DEA issued Dr. Talley an "order to show cause" on Jan. 28. The DEA
revoked Talley's DEA Certificate of Registration, which prohibits him from
prescribing narcotics. According to the DEA, Talley prescribed excessive
amounts of controlled substances such as OxyContin and Methadone, which may
have led to the deaths of 23 patients.

Graves received a trial by jury. Dr. Talley's future is in the hands of the
U.S. Attorney General. Talley also has to appear before the N.C. Medical
Board in March to try to keep his license to practice medicine in the state.

Dr. Graves kept his DEA number and prescribed narcotics until the start of
his trial six weeks ago.

According to reports from the trial, Dr. Graves took in an estimated
$500,000 a year at his office on U.S. 90, in Milton, Fla. The office opened
in Sept. 1998 and closed in July 2000 after Graves was arrested.

Dr. Talley came to Grover in 1969, and has been practicing medicine in the
small mill town since then. Talley's financial statements have not been
made public.

Two dozen pharmacists testified during the Graves trial that they became
concerned and started warning some of Graves' patients that they could die
from the combination of drugs they were taking. By the end of 1999 many
pharmacies stopped filling prescriptions written by Dr. Graves.

Medi-Fare Pharmacy sits in a trailer behind Dr. Talley's office, and most
patients have their prescriptions filled there. Talley said he has never
had a financial interest in Medi-Fare.

"No interest, no ownership," Talley said.

Billy Wease, owner of Medi-Fare, says he is the largest retailer of
OxyContin in the U.S. and Dr. Talley once wrote the most prescriptions for
the drug.

During Graves' trial investigators said that his patients came forward on
their own and released their medical records to them.

"Some of them had friends who were dying," Special Agent Dennis Norred of
the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said in a court report, "They
wanted to help the investigation."

Dr. Talley has received a mix of support and blame from patients and family
members of those he treated. There has been no indication that any of his
patients went to the DEA.