Pubdate: Mon, 20 Sep 2004
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Page: B1
Copyright: 2004 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Heather Tesoriero, Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

DRUG MAKER HELPS THE POLICE FIGHT ABUSE

In February, the St. Joseph County Area Narcotics Team in southern
Michigan raided the home of a 51-year-old woman who was selling the
pain killer OxyContin from her home. A paid informant purchased eight
pills for $200.

Traditionally, police use money from their own budgets or from asset
forfeitures for undercover purchases. In this case, the money for the
buy, as well as the informant's pay, came from Purdue Pharma L.P., the
closely held drug company that makes OxyContin. All told, St. Joseph
County has received $51,000 from Purdue Pharma in the past year. St.
Joseph county prosecutor Doug Fisher says the county felt obligated to
pursue crimes involving OxyContin "since they helped us
financially."

Since 2002, Purdue Pharma has given more than $1.7 million in grants
to police and sheriff's departments from California to Maine. The
money has proved a boon to some law-enforcement agencies, who say it
has sparked a surge in arrests for OxyContin-related crimes.

Many companies contribute to law-enforcement agencies for things such
as new uniforms or equipment, but most have shied away from making
such targeted donations. The Purdue Pharma grants are earmarked for
investigations into prescription-drug crimes.

Still, the practice walks a precarious ethical line, some say. "It's
outside interference into the deployment of police resources," says
John Kleinig, director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics at
John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "It's like
pollution. One chimney belching smoke -- no big deal. When you have
3,000 belching smoke, it's a problem, because police resources are
taken over by other interests."

Some police officials also are wary, despite a financial squeeze on
local law-enforcement departments, in part resulting from
homeland-security requirements. "The concern is that there would be a
temptation for a police department to target problems and enforce laws
for which they have the resources," says Bill Johnson, executive
director of the National Association of Police Organizations, an
umbrella group of police associations and unions. If the practice were
adopted by multiple industries "you'd have a bidding war over what
laws are enforced."

Other controlled-substance manufacturers, including Abbott
Laboratories and Endo Pharmaceuticals HoldingsInc., don't donate money
to law enforcement, but, like Purdue Pharma, they share information,
provide assistance with lab analyses and assist with undercover
investigations.

Purdue Pharma, of Stamford, Conn., has been a magnet for controversy
because of OxyContin, which last year had net sales of $1.6 billion.
Some critics complain that the powerful drug has led to addiction
among too many prescription patients. The drug -- which delivers the
opiate oxycodone in a controlled-release fashion over 12 hours -- also
has been abused by people who grind it up to overcome the
controlled-release mechanism and snort or inject it to get high. Its
wide abuse in Appalachia has earned OxyContin the nickname "hillbilly
heroin."

Two years ago, Aaron Graham, Purdue Pharma's vice president of
corporate security and a former agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, came up with the donation plan after calling regional
law-enforcement departments to find out what they were doing about the
black market for OxyContin.

He heard a common refrain: the police were aware of prescription-drug
abuse, but lacked money, equipment and manpower to investigate. Mr.
Graham says that in some cases, officers said they were using their
own pocket money to make undercover buys.

Other Purdue Pharma officials initially balked at Mr. Graham's plan to
set up a grant system and ask police and sheriff departments to apply
for the money. Why should the company pay law-enforcement agencies to
do their jobs? Mr. Graham argued that without resources and
enforcement, the problems weren't going to improve. "We're not talking
about buying them T shirts and sponsoring the softball team," Mr.
Graham says. He adds that Purdue Pharma isn't seeking any publicity or
image-boosting from the program.

Purdue Pharma started giving money, mostly in $10,000 sums, to police
departments that could outline how the money would be used. Requests
included money to buy tape recorders, digital cameras and body wires;
money for overtime for cops who worked undercover; and money for a
used car, an asset for the sheriff's office in Washington County,
Maine, whose old unmarked vehicle had 100,000 miles on it and was
recognized by local drug users.

More than half the grant money has been allotted to law-enforcement
agencies in Kentucky and towns in Appalachia. In 2002, there were
three deaths from opiate overdoses in Alexandria, Ky., population
10,000. The following year, the police department there received a
Purdue Pharma grant, $2,000 of which was used for community education.
The remaining money went toward officer overtime and equipment. Last
year, there were no overdose deaths in the town. Says county coroner
Mark Schweitzer, "The awareness and prevention programs affected
Alexandria."

However, while the number of deaths involving OxyContin decreased,
those involving heroin sharply increased. "It's a small victory if
OxyContin deaths are replaced by heroin or other opiate deaths," Dr.
Schweitzer says.

Grant recipients say the Purdue Pharma funds allow them to pursue
crimes that might otherwise go uninvestigated, and sometimes lead to
income-generating arrests -- asset forfeitures for department coffers.
Since receiving $10,000 last September, the police department in
Stanton, Ky., has opened 199 narcotics cases, up from 36 in 2002.
Asset forfeitures have garnered the department roughly $30,000, which
it uses for other investigations.

OxyContin investigations in Michigan's St. Joseph County increased so
swiftly after the grant money arrived that county prosecutor Doug
Fisher became concerned that citizens, particularly the elderly,
weren't aware that selling their medications is criminal.

In April, the county requested $31,000 from Purdue Pharma for
advertising on billboards, television and print outlets to warn
against illegal OxyContin sales. Investigators say the campaign helped
dry up the illicit market for the drug. "Before we're going to go
after these little old ladies, we're going to make sure they know it's
a crime," Mr. Fisher says. The 51-year-old arrested in February was a
terminally ill cancer patient who was financially strapped, according
to a police officer who heard her testimony in court.

Purdue Pharma has twice been cited by the Food and Drug Administration
for using potentially false or misleading advertisements in medical
journals. One claim the company now admits "has not been definitively
substantiated" was that "less than 1% of patients taking opioids
actually become addicted."

The actual rate of addiction to prescription painkillers isn't known,
the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says.
Purdue Pharma spokesman Robin Hogen says, "Purdue believes this
statement did not mislead physicians about the addiction rate to opioids."

Purdue Pharma's Mr. Graham says the company is pleased with the grant
system and will continue to give out money for prescription-drug work
by law enforcement. Mr. Graham says the program was derived in part
from his own experiences working undercover deals.

"I spent so many years on the street begging dealers to give me dope
for free because I didn't have the money to buy it," he says. "There's
nothing more frustrating than knowing the brass ring is outside your
reach."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake