Pubdate: Fri, 09 Feb 2001 Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA) Copyright: 2001 Cox Interactive Media. Contact: 72 Marietta Street, NW, Atlanta, Ga. 30303 Website: http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/ Forum: http://www.accessatlanta.com/community/forums/ Author: Roger Alford - Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?186 (Oxycontin) CANCER DRUG SPAWNS ABUSE Prescription Medicine Being Used Like Heroin Blamed For 59 Deaths In Kentucky Pikeville, Ky. --- The robber asked for only one thing when he walked into a pharmacy with a mask on and an automatic rifle in his hands: OxyContin. The prescription drug is meant to be a painkiller for cancer patients but it is being abused throughout the East as users go to great lengths to feed their addictions, authorities say. About 200 people in Kentucky were arrested on OxyContin charges this week in what police say was the largest drug raid in state history. ''They'll kick a bag of cocaine out of the way to get to 'Oxy,''' Detective Roger Hall of the Harlan County sheriff's department in Kentucky said this week. Over the past two years, the drug has become popular in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Maine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's National Drug Intelligence Center. U.S. Attorney Joseph Famularo, a leader of the Kentucky bust, said he studied autopsy reports and determined that the drug has caused 59 deaths in Kentucky. The drug's maker, Purdue Pharma in Stamford, Conn., disputes Famularo's figures. ''Even one death from abuse is a tragedy. My concern is that numbers sometimes take on a life of their own in a situation like this,'' said Dr. J. David Haddox, senior medical director for health policy at Purdue Pharma. ''I've not seen any data that those numbers are anywhere close to accurate.'' Famularo said people have been crushing the pills into powder and snorting it, or injecting it to get a euphoric high similar to that of heroin. It sells on the streets for up to $100 a pill. In Tuesday's drug roundup, police charged a nurse with stealing OxyContin from her hospital, said Capt. Danny Webb of the Kentucky State Police in Hazard. Webb said another suspect worked in a doctor's office and allegedly called in prescriptions for OxyContin to pharmacies. Her husband would then pick up the pills, police said. In Ohio, two doctors were arrested recently in connection with OxyContin prescriptions. In Maine last year, 11 people were accused of obtaining OxyContin by forging prescriptions. The drug has increased crime in eastern Kentucky, said Hazard Police Chief Rod Maggard. He estimated 90 percent of the thefts and burglaries in Hazard are for money to buy pills. In a detox center in Ashland, about 75 percent of the patients treated over the past 18 months have used OxyContin, said Bill Stewart, a supervisor for the regional mental health agency. OxyContin's withdrawal symptoms, Stewart said, involve nausea, diarrhea and severe stomach cramps. Police believe people in the region are more likely to abuse prescription medications because they are more readily available than illicit drugs like cocaine and heroin and carry less of a social stigma. The recent bust wasn't Kentucky 's first encounter with the drug. In May, 10 people were charged with running a drug operation in a rural home police say was nearly as busy as a local fast-food restaurant's drive-through window. OxyContin was among the drugs they allegedly offered for sale. Police saw more than 59,000 vehicles pull up to the driveway of the rural home during a five-month period last year. Investigators say as many as 600 were seen in the driveway in one day. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart