CLOSING ARGUMENTS MADE IN TRIAL OF DOCTOR IN OXYCONTIN DEATHS

MILTON, Fla. -- A doctor on trial in the deaths of four patients who
overdosed on the painkiller OxyContin is no different from a drug dealer, a
prosecutor said today in closing arguments.

Witnesses testified that crowds of patients of the doctor, James Graves,
ate lunch or worked on their cars in the parking lot of his office and gave
one another high fives when they came out with prescriptions, said the
assistant state attorney, Russell Edgar.

"You've got to realize something's wrong when outside your office people
are having tailgate parties," Mr. Edgar said.

Dr. Graves, 55, testified that he did not know that his patients were
abusing drugs and said that no one would have died if OxyContin had been
taken as prescribed.

"OxyContin is a good drug if it is taken properly," his lawyer, H. E. Ellis
Jr., said. "Pharmacy companies don't spend billions of dollars developing
drugs if they are going to kill people."

Prosecutors contend that Dr. Graves knew or should have known that his
booming practice in the nearby Panhandle town of Pace, a suburb of
Pensacola, was made up largely of drug addicts seeking prescriptions for
OxyContin and other narcotics popular on the street.

The Circuit Court jury is expected to begin deliberating on Tuesday. A
guilty verdict would make Dr. Graves the first doctor in the nation
convicted of manslaughter or murder in the deaths of patients from
OxyContin overdoses.

Dr. Graves is charged with racketeering, four counts of manslaughter
through culpable negligence and five counts of unlawful delivery of a
controlled substance. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to 30
years in prison.

Mr. Edgar, the prosecutor, said Dr. Graves needed money after he was fired
from jobs at a Pensacola pain clinic and a state prison. He said the money
rolled in as patients, most paying cash, returned repeatedly to feed their
addictions.

"Word spread that he was the go-to doctor," Mr. Edgar said. "He's no
different than a drug dealer."

Mr. Ellis acknowledged that Dr. Graves's record keeping was poor, but said
jurors would find evidence of a doctor's practicing medicine, not
indiscriminately prescribing drugs.

An OxyContin pill is designed to send out regulated doses of a synthetic
opiate over 12 hours to patients in chronic pain. Addicts defeat the time
delay and get a heroin-like high by chewing the pills or crushing them and
then injecting the drug.

Two dozen pharmacists testified that they stopped filling what they called
"Graves cocktails," made up of OxyContin, a painkiller called Lortab, the
tranquilizer Xanax and the muscle relaxant Soma.

"Each one of these were popular street drugs," Mr. Edgar told the jury. "In
the case of OxyContin, one pill sold for $50. The defendant knew that."