ABUSE PROVES DEADLY

Drug addicts are playing a game of Russian roulette when they inject or
snort a crushed version of a popular pain medicine that killed a Columbia
County man last week, local experts say. ''Some are inexperienced and overdo
it, and you're talking instant death," said Dr. Phillip Coule, an assistant
professor of emergency medicine at the Medical College of Georgia. ''This
was not the way the drug was meant to be delivered."

OxyContin is a controlled-release pill prescribed to ease the suffering of
individuals with severe pain. Doctors generally prescribe it to patients
with cancer, multiple sclerosis or chronic pain.

But experts say the painkiller is killing more than just pain.

Brannen Weiss, a 23-year-old who had just graduated from Augusta Technical
College, died Monday from an overdose of OxyContin, Richmond County
authorities said. James David Mitchell, 21, was charged with murder in the
death, accused of injecting his friend with a lethal dose of the crushed
painkiller, police said.

''It's a very good drug when used properly," said Jean Morris, a pharmacy
technician at The Medicine Cabinet in Martinez.

''You take these guys out here who are on the street, and they go and they
grind that tablet up and they inhale it, or they mix it and inject it. And
they have no idea how much they are putting into their system," she said.

Drug users are known to suck on the pills to take off the protective
coating, then crush them into powder and snort them for a powerful,
heroin-like rush.

Local officials say OxyContin-related crimes - including prescription fraud,
property theft, and break-ins to doctors' offices and pharmacies - have
increased.

For example:

An Augusta couple were arrested in March after presenting a University
Hospital prescription for OxyContin to a Hephzibah pharmacy, police said.
The pharmacist became suspicious and called the doctor listed on the form.
The physician confirmed that the prescription was forged.

Aiken police found a man in a hotel in December with OxyContin pills spread
across a bed next to stolen prescription pads and stolen medical files.
Heywood Dalton, 39, pleaded guilty in June to distributing the drug
illegally and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Emergency room doctors say some people are making repeat visits to the
emergency room, saying they are in severe pain and asking for OxyContin by
name. ''They want OxyContin for their toothache, which is a little tip-off
that they don't need it for pain relief," Dr. Coule said.

Health experts are worried about what abuse of the prescription painkiller
means for patients who really need the drug.

Federal law enforcement officials have said they're considering limiting
drug supplies, and efforts to restrict its use have already begun in some
areas.

For example, an alliance of hospitals in Ohio has limited use of OxyContin
to cancer patients with only a few exceptions. And six states in the East
have made it difficult for patients to get the painkiller through Medicaid.

One pharmacist said patients in severe pain need the drug and any movement
to limit distribution could harm them.

''These are legitimate drugs, legitimately used for legitimate purposes,"
said pharmacist Allen Partridge of The Medicine Cabinet. ''And if they get
banned or more control put on them, then the people who really need them are
not going to be able to get them. And that's what gripes me.

''It's a situation where if you have a terminal cancer patient, and a person
who has chronic pain, it is a very necessary thing. Where we get into the
problem is when it hits the street."

Dr. Coule said the drug depresses the body's urge to breathe, which can
cause loss of consciousness, vomiting and heart attack.

''You're talking Russian roulette," he said. ''And mixing alcohol and
OxyContin is like playing Russian roulette with two bullets in the chamber."

Grover Tuten, deputy coroner for Richmond County, said he is not sure how
many of the county's 82 overdose deaths in the past 16 months are related to
OxyContin, but he sees the potential for abusers to end up dead.

''Here they are, taking a drug that is designed to do one specific thing,"
he said. ''And when you start using it for something else, you have no idea
how your body reacts to it. The end result is that we get to visit with
them."