Pubdate: Fri, 18 May 2001
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Copyright: 2001 Richmond Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesdispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365
Author: Rex Bowman, Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

ABUSE OF DRUG 'GETTING WORSE'

ABINGDON - A state task force trying to stem abuse of the painkiller 
OxyContin is considering a multipronged approach that includes tracking 
prescriptions, toughening penalties for illegal dealers and treating addicts.

But in their first meeting since Attorney General Mark L. Earley formed the 
task force, members said yesterday they think the scourge of death, 
addiction and crime brought upon Southwest Virginia by abuse of the 
synthetic morphine is worsening.

"The problem is not getting better," said task force member and Tazewell 
County prosecutor Dennis Lee, who estimates that nearly 38 percent of crime 
in Tazewell is linked to the illicit trade of the drug.

"For every [illegal dealer] we're picking up, there are probably hundreds 
we are not picking up," said Lee County prosecutor Tammy McElyea. "It's 
getting worse."

Dr. William Massello, assistant chief medical examiner from Roanoke, told 
the task force that autopsies suggest that as many as 43 Virginians have 
overdosed on OxyContin since 1998, 37 of them in far Southwest Virginia.

Though the drug is meant to give users long-lasting relief from moderate to 
severe pain, abusers have found they can get high instantly by crushing it 
and snorting it, or by dissolving it in water and injecting it. However, 
the abuse can be fatal, because of the large doses of the drug's main 
ingredient, the opioid oxycodone.

Law enforcement officials told the task force members yesterday that 
residents in the coalfields continue to rob, steal and forge checks and 
prescriptions to obtain the drug illegally.

Their addiction has also led to a thriving "guns for drugs" trade.

Meanwhile, Deborah May, marketing director of the Life Center of Galax, a 
drug treatment clinic, said a recent survey of patients in the methadone 
treatment program found that seven were trying to kick a heroin habit, 
while 243 were hooked on OxyContin.

The drug's maker, Purdue Pharma L.P. of Connecticut, is taking aggressive 
steps to curb abuse of its drug, which has continued to sell despite a 
barrage of negative publicity surrounding its abuse.

Yesterday, Dr. J. David Haddox, senior medical director with Purdue Pharma, 
announced that the company has stopped shipping 40mg OxyContin tablets to 
Mexico after reports that the drug was being diverted and rerouted back to 
the United States. The move comes one week after the company announced that 
it would stop distributing its strongest OxyContin pill, of 160mg.

And two weeks ago, Purdue Pharma began sending its sales managers out to 
talk to doctors in 100 counties around the country deemed potential sites 
of OxyContin abuse. "Our sales representatives are telling our clients, 
'Don't prescribe OxyContin unless you can do it right,'" Haddox said.

Authorities say some doctors are overprescribing the drug, giving it to 
clients who sell it on the street for $1 per milligram.

OxyContin abuse has become a problem in isolated pockets of the nation, 
though primarily in remote areas along the Appalachian mountains.

Law enforcement and company officials first noticed a problem early last 
year in Maine, then in Southwest Virginia.

Yesterday, the 25-member task force bandied about several ideas on how to 
eliminate OxyContin abuse, the most popular of which was the creation of a 
system to track every prescription written for drugs prone to abuse.

Kentucky created such a system several years ago, and investigations that 
once took 140 days now take 20 days, said Landon Gibbs, assistant special 
agent in charge of the Virginia State Police unit assigned to 
prescription-drug fraud.

"I know of no other system that will work better than a prescription 
monitoring system," Gibbs said. "It's the most important thing we can do."

The committee also pondered toughening sentences for those caught illegally 
distributing OxyContin. Dealers are typically given a suspended sentence or 
one year in jail, according to local prosecutors. Those prosecutors 
suggested new laws lengthening state prison sentences for dealers.

They also suggested turning more cases over to federal courts, where judges 
can send a dealer to prison for five years if he happens to own a gun, or 
20 years to life if he has five people working for him.

However, some task force members said that, ultimately, helping people beat 
their addictions to OxyContin will be one of the task force's biggest jobs.

"If we took all the OxyContin off the street tomorrow, we'd still have 
thousands of people addicted who are going to have to be treated," said 
task force member Gary Parsons, sheriff of Lee County.
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