OxyContin dilemma: Allowing pain control while stopping abuse

A popular painkiller's misuse leads to headaches between law enforcement and medical communities.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. Jan. 28, 2002.

Last month, federal authorities charged an Indianapolis doctor with unlawful distribution of OxyContin and health care fraud. In New Jersey, police reported that $800,000 worth of the drug was stolen from a cargo hangar at Newark Airport. And in Florida, the manslaughter trial has begun for a Pensacola-area doctor whose OxyContin prescriptions were linked to the overdose deaths of four patients.

As the worlds of medicine and law enforcement collide over the issue of OxyContin, arguments arise over whether monitoring prescriptions will save lives or impede a doctor's ability to treat patients with chronic pain.

"Anyone who is practicing within the confines of accepted medical practices doesn't have anything to fear," said U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman Rogene Waite.

The agency put into place an oxycodone action plan in April 2001, Waite said, and it concentrates on investigating forged and fraudulent prescriptions, pharmacy thefts, patient "doctor shopping," and unscrupulous medical professionals.

Other parts of the plan include an educational outreach program with doctors on the proper use of OxyContin and data collection on prescriptions, thefts, arrests and oxycodone-related emergency department episodes.

"DEA does not intend to restrict legitimate use of OxyContin, nor prevent practitioners acting in the usual course of medical practice from prescribing OxyContin for patients with a legitimate medical purpose," said DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson during testimony before a U.S. House subcommittee last month. [...]