PAINKILLER THEFTS FROM PHARMACIES MULTIPLY

LOVELAND -- Thieves looking for potent, potentially lethal painkillers are
hitting pharmacies in Loveland and Berthoud. Burglars have broken into
drugstores in the Larimer County communities nine times since August,
police said. In eight of the incidents, the thieves have ignored money and
pharmaceutical equipment, filling their pockets instead with painkillers.
The ninth break-in was unsuccessful.

"It's been about every two to three weeks," said Loveland police Detective
Tom Vermilye. "Our best guess is they (the prescription drugs) are being
sold on the street."

Investigators are particularly concerned about missing OxyContin tablets,
which were stolen in six of the break-ins. The prescription drug is a
long-lasting version of oxycodone, a narcotic used to treat patients
suffering from moderate to severe pain from cancer and other long-term
illnesses. When swallowed whole, the tablets are time-released to provide
12 hours of relief.

But the tablets are highly addictive and popular on the illicit market,
where they sell for as much as $1 a milligram. When chewed, snorted or
injected, the potent drug produces a quick, heroinlike high. An overdose
can cause a heart attack.

The drug has been linked to more than 120 deaths nationwide and is the
focus of law enforcement crackdowns in other regions of the country. "To be
honest, I didn't even know what OxyContin was when this started, but now
that we have learned about the dangers . . . it's a definite concern,"
Vermilye said. "These drugs are getting out on the streets. They aren't
being regulated, and they are highly toxic."

The most recent break-in came Nov. 5 in Loveland at Columbine Drug, which
had been hit twice before, Vermilye said. There have been three burglaries
at Doug's Pharmacy and one attempted burglary at The Medicine Shoppe, he said.

All the thefts have occurred between midnight and 4 a.m. The burglars pried
open doors or smashed windows.

Loveland police are looking into possible connections between their
burglaries and two that occurred in nearby Berthoud in August and September.

In both those cases, thieves broke into Berthoud Drug, stealing 3,000
tablets of hydrocodone bitartrate, the generic form of the popular
painkiller Vicodin, Police Chief Bill Wegener said.

Though OxyContin abuse is still fairly uncommon in Colorado, drug
enforcement officials say they are watching for its arrival.

"It's a growing concern for us," said Dennis Follett, spokesman for the
Drug Enforcement Administration in Denver. "We saw it happening on the East
Coast six to eight months ago. We tend to follow suit a year or two later."

El Paso County forensic toxicologist Joe Levisky already has noticed a
"significant increase" in deaths involving oxycodone. Levisky, who conducts
toxicology tests for two-thirds of the coroner's offices in the state, said
he only remembers a handful of cases in 1995. Last year, he said, there
were an estimated 20 to 30.

The Denver Coroner's Office has logged seven such deaths this year.

Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, has come under attack from
some members of the medical community who say that a high-pressure
marketing campaign failed to address the drug's dangers. The manufacturer
is considering adding an ingredient that would block the opiate effect if
the tablet is crushed, but the company estimates it will take three to five
years to test the new medication.

Anyone with information about the burglaries or distribution of the stolen
drugs is asked to call CrimeStoppers at (970) 221-6868. Authorities are
offering a reward of up to $1,000.