Pubdate: Thu, 30 Aug 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 OXYCONTIN MAKER HIRES HELP FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT The Connecticut company that makes the powerful painkiller OxyContin plans to hire law-enforcement officials from around the nation to work with police grappling with the widespread abuse of the drug, company officials said yesterday. Some immediately derided the move as an attempt by Purdue Pharma L.P. to put its public critics on its private payroll. Others called it an effort to burnish the company's image in the wake of fatal overdoses and crime linked to OxyContin abuse. "I think it's more of a public relations thing than anything else," said Dennis Lee, prosecutor in Tazewell County, the epicenter of the "Oxy" abuse problem that has gripped Southwest Virginia since 1998. But Dr. J. David Haddox, senior medical director at Purdue, said critics are wrong: The company hopes to hire a total of seven law-enforcement officers with expertise in drug abuse by the end of next year in an attempt to better understand how abusers are getting a drug that legitimate pain sufferers hail as their salvation. "We want to be able to collect information and experiences from police officers from around the nation," said Haddox. In Virginia, Purdue already has hired Landon Gibbs, head of the Virginia State Police drug diversion unit in Roanoke. Gibbs starts his job with Purdue on Tuesday. Haddox said Gibbs is the first hire of what will be a law-enforcement liaison and education team that should include another six police officers by the end of next year. "It may turn out that we need more, but six is what we're going to go for right now." The team will report to Haddox, who also heads the company's public relations team, which has spent the last year emphasizing that the medical benefits of the powerful opioid OxyContin dwarf the problems associated with its illicit use. OxyContin, introduced five years ago, was designed to ease moderate to severe chronic pain, such as that suffered by patients with terminal cancer. But abusers have found they can circumvent the pill's 12-hour time release by crushing it and snorting it, or by injecting it. Once addicted, abusers have turned to crime to acquire the drug, straining the limited resources of law-enforcement agencies in areas such as Southwest Virginia and rural Maine. Abuse of the drug has prompted calls for more regulation, tougher prison sentences and new ways to track prescriptions. In the wake of the publicity, Purdue has developed a tamper-proof prescription pad, stopped distributing its most powerful OxyContin pill of 160 mg, curtailed shipments to Mexico and instructed its representatives not to sell the drug to pharmacists they think won't act responsibly. James Heins, spokesman for Purdue, said Haddox's team will not only give the company more insight into how abusers obtain the drug, but will also help the company explain the drug's widespread benefit to law-enforcement agencies. "That's part of our whole initiative," he said, "to work with law-enforcement to make sure they see pain management from our point of view, and we see drug diversion from their point of view." Emmitt Yeary, an Abingdon lawyer who has filed a $5.2 billion class-action lawsuit against Purdue Pharma in federal court in Big Stone Gap, called the company's use of law-enforcement officials "a disgrace." "It's a public relations ploy, and I think it's another hypocritical gesture of denial on their part that aggravates the situation. They're continuing to say the problem is the abusers, when they created this demon drug and they've created the victims," said Yeary, who filed the suit on behalf of eight Virginia residents who say they've suffered as a result of OxyContin addiction. But Gibbs, of the Virginia State Police, said he would not have accepted the job with Purdue unless he was convinced the company is trying to do the right thing. "We discussed this, and this is not going to be anything but a real program to help law enforcement prevent diversion," he said. Gibbs is the second high-profile enforcement official to join Purdue. Jay McCloskey, former U.S. attorney for Maine, was one of the first to recognize his state had a problem with Oxy abuse, and he became an outspoken critic. Now, though, he works as a part-time consultant for the company, Haddox said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom