Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2001
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Josh White, Washington Post Staff Writer

TOWN'S OXYCONTIN BUYERS TO BE FINGERPRINTED

Pulaski Pharmacies Plan To Use Invisible-Ink System In Police-Led Battle 
Against Abuse Of Painkiller.

Patients in the small southwest Virginia town of Pulaski will have to 
provide fingerprints at the area's six pharmacies to get OxyContin as part 
of a novel law enforcement effort to curb widespread abuse of the 
prescription painkiller.

Pulaski police are planning to meet with pharmacists next week to show them 
how to use a chemical fingerprinting system that employs invisible ink to 
"sign" documents for authenticity. Patients will be asked to leave their 
fingerprint signature on prescription papers so police can track cases of 
fraud.

Police hope the technology, regularly used to prevent payroll fraud and for 
cashing checks, will stem the increasing number of fake prescriptions for 
OxyContin. Police will be able to use the fingerprints to ferret out 
suspects and link them to illegal transactions.

The system is not used anywhere else for prescription drugs except 
Louisiana, where doctors use it for several sensitive narcotics.

"Anything that will stop the flow onto the streets we'll be happy with," 
said Detective Marshall Dowdy of the Pulaski police. "This is a seemingly 
never-ending battle."

OxyContin, which comes in a time-release pill and is similar to morphine, 
has emerged as one of the most widely abused drugs throughout Appalachia. 
It has been linked to at least 43 deaths in southwest Virginia since 1997 
and has been blamed for significant rises in crime -- from fraud and theft 
to violence and murder -- throughout the region.

Pain patients who rely on OxyContin for relief consider it a miracle drug, 
but abusers are drawn to the pills' purity and availability. They crush the 
pills and snort them or inject them for a euphoric, heroin-like high.

Purdue Pharma, the Stamford, Conn.-based manufacturer of OxyContin, 
supports the fingerprinting as long as it is applied to all controlled 
substances and is not limited to OxyContin. Company officials believe 
singling out OxyContin will simply lead criminals to go to other pharmacies 
or abuse other potent prescription drugs.

"Any identification technology that does not discriminate against patients 
or stigmatize them will be a valuable aid to reduce prescription fraud and 
aid law enforcement in their investigations," said J. David Haddox, senior 
medical director for health policy at Purdue Pharma. "There's no question 
in my mind that there are instances now where patients are being 
under-treated or quite frankly don't have access to this drug when this 
drug is what works best for them. And that's an absolute tragedy."

Pulaski officials said the fingerprinting would begin only with OxyContin 
prescriptions, but could be expanded later.

To make the print, a patient swipes an index finger across a pad, picking 
up an invisible chemical. The patient then places the same finger on a 
treated paper sticker, which almost immediately displays a blue, 
smudge-proof print. During investigations, police can scan the print and 
compare it with local and national databases, as if it had been taken with ink.

Abuse of OxyContin has been creeping onto the streets of Northern Virginia 
and has popped up in urban areas across the country. Northern New Jersey 
and the Boston area have recently seen waves of abuse and crime related to 
OxyContin, while Florida has experienced a steady rise.

Pulaski police said they had more than 1,800 drug-related crimes in the 
first six months of the year -- almost one crime for every five people in 
the town -- most of which were connected to OxyContin.

Dowdy, who came up with the idea after seeing a similar system for 
validating checks at a local grocery store, said the fingerprinting won't 
be an "end-all solution" to the problem but could make at least a small dent.

"It's horrible, and I don't know if it can get any worse here," Dowdy said. 
"We're at least willing to try." 
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom