Pubdate: Sat, 07 Aug 2004
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: The Windsor Star 2004
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Doug Schmidt

EVERYONE'S OUT TO SCORE OXY

Everyone's out to score oxy. Prescription painkillers are at the heart of a 
crime wave in Windsor that authorities say is responsible for at least two 
murders and a doubling of residential break-ins in the past two years.

Prescription narcotics such as Percodan, Dilaudid and OxyContin- a drug 
about eight times more potent than morphine and known on the street as 
"hillbilly heroin" - have become the new highs of choice for heavy abusers, 
authorities say.

They're cheaper and easier to acquire than heroin or cocaine, their quality 
is assured - and they're just as dangerously addictive.

"We see as many of these cases now as we do crack cocaine cases," said 
Windsor-Essex federal prosecutor Richard Pollock. "There is a connection 
between the high rate of break and enters in Windsor and Essex County and 
drug abuse."

Windsor police responded to an average of almost 10 reported home or 
business break and enters every day through the first six months of the 
year. At a monthly average of 263 reported break-ins, Windsor is on course 
for 3,000 B&Es this year - a 70-per-cent increase over the 10-year average.

For most local addicts, said Pollock, "the only way you can feed your habit 
is by selling the drugs or (committing) property crimes."

Homes, businesses and parked vehicles are easy targets.

"More people are taking pills than ever - for some reason we've been 
running into a lot of oxycodone," said Sgt. Kevin Trudell of the Windsor 
police drug squad, referring to the opiate from which OxyContin and 
Percocet are made. "We're seeing more and more of it, and I assume it'll 
get a lot worse ... because it's cheap."

A Dilaudid No. 4 tablet, the preferred street hit, can be bought for as 
little as $30, compared to $100 to $150 for a gram of cocaine.

"Users don't say 'I'm gonna save till I can afford coke.' They say: 'I 
wanna get high now,' " said Trudell.

The "dramatic rise" in prescription painkillers comes as trafficking in 
more traditional narcotics such as crack remains relatively constant, said 
Insp. Greg Renaud, who oversees the department's street crimes and special 
services branches.

The New Year's Eve slayings of Skyler Rabideau, 8, and his father Randy, 
53, were directly related to Randy's trafficking in painkillers.

Joseph St. Onge, 38, pleaded guilty July 15 to two counts of second-degree 
murder. Assistant Crown attorney Randy Semeniuk told a Superior Court 
justice that Rabideau sold Dilaudid, Percodan and other prescription drugs 
out of the west-side home he shared with his son.

Semeniuk said Randy Rabideau was stabbed to death after he enraged St. Onge 
by cutting off the addict's supply of pills. St. Onge, who murdered Skyler 
after he witnessed his father's killing, will be sentenced Sept. 27.

St. Onge's history of drug abuse was highlighted at his sentencing in 1999 
for participating earlier that year in an armed robbery at the downtown 
Hospital Employees Credit Union. St. Onge, who grew up in the Curry Avenue 
neighbourhood west of downtown, was sentenced that time to 3 1/2 years in jail.

"They were all addicted to medically prescribed drugs, particularly 
Dilaudid," said Bob DiPietro, St. Onge's defence lawyer.

After one of St. Onge's credit union accomplices, Michael Henderson, 51, 
killed himself in his cell at the Windsor Jail in July 2001, DiPietro told 
a hearing into his death that Henderson had been battling severe heroin 
addiction and that the trio's "only motive" for the robbery was scoring 
money for drugs.

"I know the people they're arresting," said DiPietro. "There's no doubt in 
my mind at all - the high frequency of B&Es in Windsor is directly related 
to people's needs to feed their drug addiction."

Users belong to what DiPietro has described as a growing "subculture" that 
knows where and how to get the drugs. They identify doctors and pharmacies 
they consider easy targets and share information on the Internet.

The black market is fed by a number of sources, including falsified 
prescriptions on blank pads stolen from doctors' offices, and break-ins at 
the homes of cancer patients for whom oxy was first developed.

In at least one case, said Pollock, an unscrupulous relative continued to 
fill the prescriptions of a loved one who died of cancer.

"I've seen doctors who have improperly prescribed these drugs, either 
intentionally for their own profit, or because they've been intimidated ... 
or bamboozled by someone claiming pain," said Pollock.

Police on the trail of an armed robber uncovered another local death 
believed related to illicit painkillers when they executed a search warrant 
in Kingsville in February.

The OPP Western Region Crime Unit discovered the body of a 28-year-old man. 
Also found was a large quantity of prescription narcotics, including 
Dilaudid and Demerol, that had been taken two days earlier in an armed 
robbery of a Kingsville drugstore.

After the discovery of the body, the OPP concluded its robbery 
investigation, but police are still awaiting the toxicology results. A 
quantity of the stolen drugs was missing, and the OPP say there was no 
indication of suicide.

WHERE TO GET HELP:

To get help for an OxyContin addiction contact the House of Sophrosyne, 
252-2711; Brentwood Recovery Home for Alcoholics, 253-2441; Narcotics 
Anonymous, 977-8063; Windsor Regional Hospital, 254-5577; or the Centre for 
Addiction and Mental Health, formerly known as the Addiction Research 
Foundation, 1-800-463-6273.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart