Pubdate: Thu, 09 Jun 2005
Source: Wakefield Observer (MA)
Copyright: 2005 Community Newspaper Company
Contact:  http://www2.townonline.com/wakefield/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3791
Author: Lisa Guerriero
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

POLICE WORK, OC BAN MAY CURB PROBLEM

Wakefield police and lawmakers are fighting a new enemy in the war on 
drugs: OxyContin.

OxyContin hit the market in 1996 as a painkiller prescribed to people 
suffering from extreme pain.

The  pills can be abused by removing the time release coating. Abusers chew 
the pill  or crush it up and snort it, getting a "high" that isn't present 
when the drug  is used as directed.

The drug,  known as OCs or Oxys on the street, was seized during numerous 
drug busts in  Wakefield over the last few years. Thieves ransacked 
Walgreen's last week and  stole prescription narcotics including OxyContin 
and the painkillers Percocet  and morphine.

The opiate  tragically took the lives of young people in Melrose in 2002 
and 2003. Wakefield  Police Chief Rick Smith worries it's a "numbers game" 
until someone in Wakefield  suffers the same fate as the Melrose youths. 
Wakefield police have seen an  increase in OxyContin-related drug activity 
in the past few years, he said.

"The  trouble is that young people today get involved in OxyContin because 
they like  the high, they've heard of the high, and they can get their 
hands on it now  because there's a lot of it on the street," Smith said. 
"They don't understand  it's powerfully, powerfully addictive. A couple 
tablets and you can be  addicted."

The drug's  addictive quality and its prevalence among young people in 
Essex and Middlesex  counties are some of the reasons Smith recently 
participated in a program with  Purdue Pharma, the company that produces 
OxyContin. Purdue  Pharma held a seminar in Boston in April to train drug 
unit commanders on  OxyContin abuse awareness. Smith asked the 
representative to come to Wakefield  for a regional training session in May.

The  training was designed to familiarize and re-familiarize officers - at 
no cost to  the town - with pharmaceuticals abused on the street, and 
medical effects and  results caused by pharmaceuticals.

Pardue  Pharma also discussed "diversion," the ways legal drugs make their 
way onto the  black market. One of the ways is larceny from someone who has 
a prescription.

Another way  is "phony scripts," Smith said - when a physician writes a 
prescription for  someone who doesn't need pain treatment, or when someone 
steals a prescription  from a doctor's office. Earlier this year a 
Wakefield doctor with a practice in  Melrose was charged with swapping 
OxyContin prescriptions for drugs like  Ecstasy.

A local epidemic? Wakefield's  state Rep. Mike Festa, D-Melrose, said he 
has dealt with OxyContin addicts in  his job as a defense attorney. Most of 
them are young, and some are from Melrose  and Wakefield, he said.

Festa said  his young clients are usually students without a prior criminal 
record. They are  young people, often formerly good students or athletes, 
who were unable to beat  their addiction even after week-long or month-long 
detoxification programs.

"Never in  all my years have I seen anything like the incredible 
dangerousness of this  drug," Festa said. "We are seeing a lot of people 
coming down here who can't do  anything in 30 days to change this 
addiction." OxyContin  abuse is a national concern; the Partnership for a 
Drug Free America reports  that one in 10 teenagers - about 2.3 million - 
abuse OxyContin. Statistics  on abuse in Massachusetts aren't available, 
but health experts say the state has the highest numbers of abuse.

State Sen.  Richard R. Tisei, R-Wakefield, has heard testimony about the 
drug from many  legal and medical experts.

"New  England has the worst problem in the country. Of all the states in 
New England,  Massachusetts is number one. We probably have the biggest 
problem in the U.S. at  this point," said Tisei, paraphrasing what he and 
other lawmakers were told by  the Department of Publuc Health. Tisei 
said  communities like Wakefield aren't exempt from the problem. "It 
doesn't  matter whether you're in urban area or a tony suburb, this is a 
problem that's  pretty much widespread," Tisei said. Tisei,  Festa and 
Smith each said one of the dangers of OxyContin is its affiliation  with 
heroin, which addicts say delivers a similar "high" at a lower price. 
OxyContin  pills usually come in 80-mg form, and people with severe 
dependencies need two  or three a day to support their addiction. The cost 
is about $80 per pill,  making it a costly habit.

Smith said  a bag of heroin, in comparison, costs $3 to $5 per bag. Since 
heroin can be  snorted - not just injected with a needle - the transition 
is easy for some  users.

After  hearing so many clients recall their move from OC to heroin, Festa 
said he is  convinced the two are linked.

"At $80 a  pill, (abusers) rapidly spiral downward into addiction to heroin 
- - $4 or $5 is  all they can afford to feed that addiction," Festa said. An 
OxyContin ban?

The war on  OxyContin has reached the state and national level. Lawmakers 
are weighing bills  at both levels that would ban production of the pills. 
U.S. Rep.  Stephen Lynch, a Boston Democrat, put forward a congressional 
bill last month  that would ban the drug from the commercial market. A 
similar  bill is being weighed by state lawmakers. Tisei and Festa said 
they don't  support an outright ban, because the drug works wonders for 
people - including  cancer patients - who suffer from chronic pain. "The 
reason  why is that when it's properly prescribed, it has an incredibly 
important value  in pain management," said Festa.

Festa  belives lawmakers should pressure Purdue Pharma to make an 
OxyContion pill with  the time-release inside, rather than a removable 
coating. That would emilinate  the high that abusers seek and make the drug 
less attractive for recreational  use, he said. Chief Smith also favors 
reformulating the drug. If Purdue  Pharma is unable or unwilling to change 
the drug's design, Festa said, a ban may  be a consideration.

Tisei, who  serves on the Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance 
Abuse, said an  effective tool against drug abuse is requiring hospitals 
and doctors to report  opiate overdoses. This requirement is up for debate 
in the Senate, and is  supported by Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey.

Some  overdoses, like two non-fatal cases in Melrose last month, become 
public. Tisei  suspects many more go unreported, making existing overdose 
statistics "just a  guess."

The ongoing  public hearings before the joint committee have convinced 
Tisei that health  insurance companies need to provide more coverage for 
substance abuse treatment,  and for longer periods of time.

"We need to  make sure anyone who wants to be treated, that a treatment 
program available for  them," he said.

He also  hopes to put more money into prevention forums at public schools. 
The  suggestions developed by the task force are expected to be unveiled as 
a comprehensive plan this fall.

In the  meantime, law enforcement agencies continue their battle against 
OxyContin  abuse. Wakefield's Middlesex County District Attorney Martha 
Coakley launched a  prevention campaign last spring, Project Stop OxyContin 
Abuse. The first step  was implementing a toll-free hotline, 
1-866-OXY-TIPS, which allows callers to  give tips about illegal 
distribution of the drug. Coakley  called a regional conference on the 
problem with educators, police and medical professionals in May.

In  September Coakley's office unveiled "Jammed Up - A Prescription for 
Disaster," a  film about the dangers of the drug. The name comes from the 
slang term for  getting high on OxyContin, "jammed." The 17-minute film 
includes interviews with  several former teen addicts.

On the  North Shore, Essex County District Attorney has launched a similar 
campaign. Smith said  police are making headway by pooling resources with 
other agencies. Wakefield  Police teams with surrounding communities to 
form the South Middlesex Regional  Task Force, which has made several 
high-profile OxyContin and heroin seizures in  the last year.

"Our  intelligence base is good. The officers are working hard," Smith 
said. "Our goal  is to get this stuff off the street. Our goal is to 
save  lives."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom