Pubdate: Mon, 5 Jan 2004
Source: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Copyright: 2004, Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371
Author: Bill Scanlon

PAINKILLER ABUSE INCREASES SHARPLY 

Illicit use of Rx pills up 243% in 6 years, Colorado officials report

Illicit use of prescription painkillers - like those that got radio
talk show host Rush Limbaugh in trouble - has increased more than 200
percent in the past few years, Colorado hospital officials say.

Last year, they were mentioned in hospital discharge notes 2,605
times. Six years previous, they had been mentioned just 760 times.

That's a 243 percent increase in six years, and there is no sign of a
letup.

Along with the increase in painkiller abuse has come an increase in
deaths associated with it. Annual deaths because of painkillers have
quadrupled nationally since the mid-1990s, from about 70 a year to
about 280, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

One of the most abused drugs is OxyContin, which became the
top-selling prescription painkiller in 2000. It is popular because it
contains 10 to 20 times the amount of oxy-codone, the morphine-like
active ingredient, as most other painkillers.

OxyContin has a time-release action that is supposed to provide relief
to cancer patients and others for up to 12 hours. But abusers crush
the pill and snort or inject it to feel the heroin-like high quickly,
according to the Web site www.oxycontin-abuse-news.com.

In Colorado, another prescription painkiller, hydrocodone, is abused
as much or more than OxyContin, probably because it is a Schedule 3
drug, so a refill can be called into a pharmacy, said Dr. Richard
Dart, who heads the Rocky Mountain Poison Center run by Denver Health
Medical Center.

A major source of hydrocodone are rings of criminals that go from city
to city, hitting up every doctor they can on short notice, complaining
of back pain, Dart said. When the pattern is finally noticed, the gang
has left for another city.

Another way people get their hands on painkillers is simply to respond
to the Internet spam that promises a doctor's OK and easy delivery of
the pills.

Police first noticed sharp spikes in painkiller abuse in poor, rural
areas where people work long hours at low wages, giving the drugs the
nickname "hillbilly heroin."

At the urging of the DEA, OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma has put
warning labels on the pills, likening their abuse to methadone
addiction. The company also is trying to alter the drug so abusers
can't get a quick high from it.