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The purpose of this site is to
bring awareness on how easy it is to overdose Oxycontin(Oxy's)
it's other ABUSE dangers and the dangers of Prescription Drug
Abuse
in the memory of Eddie Bisch.
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GroupGGGG
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Group to target OxyContin maker in Orlando rally
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By Doris Bloodsworth
Sentinel Staff Writer
November 17, 2003
Relatives Against Purdue Pharma, a group that blames the
maker of painkiller
OxyContin for addiction and overdose suffered by loved
ones, says it will
protest this week at an Orlando drug-prevention
conference supported by Gov. Jeb
Bush.
At least a dozen members of the group plan to rally
Wednesday morning outside an
Orlando resort while Florida first lady Columba Bush
leads about 1,500 drug
counselors and educators in a session called "Empowering
Others to Act." The
protesters are from Florida and seven other states.
Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., is one of 31
exhibitors scheduled to be at the
annual conference that will run Tuesday through Thursday
at the Caribe Royale
Resort near Epcot. The drug company will display its
Painfully Obvious program
aimed at educating parents, teachers and students about
the dangers of abusing
prescription medicines.
Protest organizer Ed Bisch of Philadelphia said the
group, made up mostly of
parents of overdose victims and patients who say they
became accidentally
addicted, want to raise awareness about abuse, addiction
and overdose tied to
the narcotic painkiller.
"We are sick that kids can buy these pills, which are
supposedly a controlled
substance, on any street corner," said Bisch, whose
18-year-old son, Eddie, died
Feb. 19, 2001 after drinking beer and splitting a
40-milligram OxyContin tablet
with a friend.
Betty Tully, 41, of Chicago plans to be part of the
Orlando protest. Tully said
she was prescribed OxyContin two years ago for back
pain. She took the
medication for 10 months in 2001.
"I got a doctor who was sold on the drug and didn't know
what he was doing," she
said. "I lost my job, my home, my health care and my
once hard-earned future
plans."
The protest comes at a time when Florida Attorney
General Charlie Crist said he
is considering an investigation into problems attributed
to OxyContin.
Bisch said the loosely formed group evolved after he
posted a story on his
oxyabuse kills.com Web site about a Connecticut mother
leading an Oct. 23
protest at Purdue's headquarters. Kay Kelley-Moretti of
Milford, Conn., carried
a poster-size photo of her son, Jason Kelley, 27, who
died June 6 from an
overdose after she said he became addicted to the
painkiller. Kelley-Moretti
said a Florida doctor prescribed her only child
OxyContin after he was injured
in a spring-break motorcycle accident in Daytona Beach
three years ago.
Purdue Pharma spokesman Jim Heins said Friday, "We offer
our sincere condolences
to anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one from
a drug overdose. Such
loss is a devastating blow that no mere words can
adequately address."
Heins added that Purdue's marketing of OxyContin had
been "appropriate" and that
the company had "placed considerable emphasis on
educating prescribers on
pain-treatment guidelines that include the appropriate
use of opioid
medications."
Some hail drug as 'miracle'
OxyContin is a time-released oxycodone medication
originally marketed for cancer
pain. Sometimes called "heroin in a pill," it was linked
recently to a
prescription-drug investigation involving Rush Limbaugh.
The conservative
talk-radio commentator is scheduled to return to the
airwaves today, according
to his Web site.
The protesters often find themselves at odds with
chronic-pain patients who call
OxyContin a "miracle drug." Some interviewed by the
Sentinel say the medication
allows them to function and sleep through the night.
"This is a good drug when it's used as prescribed," said
Chris Bryan, 55, of
Orlando, who takes OxyContin for dystonia, a painful
neurological disorder.
Many attending the conference are well aware of
prescription-drug abuse.
Luis Delgado, a Seminole County addictions counselor and
a conference speaker,
said legally prescribed medications are the new "gateway
drugs" for adults,
leading them to abuse other substances.
Florida medical examiners reported a total of 573 people
died in 2001 and 2002
from lethal amounts of oxycodone, the active ingredient
in OxyContin and dozens
of other painkillers. That compared with 521 deaths from
heroin during the same
time period.
A nine-month Orlando Sentinel investigation including a
review of 500 autopsy
reports found OxyContin was the drug identified in about
83 percent of the 247
oxycodone-overdose cases linked to a specific
medication. In the remaining 253
oxycodone deaths, a brand-name drug was not determined.
In its review, the paper also found that people in their
teens and 20s accounted
for 100 of the oxycodone deaths, while most of the
deceased were middle-age
white men.
Gov. Bush, who will kick off the conference Tuesday
morning, and Jim McDonough,
head of the state's Office of Drug Control, say they
will push legislators to
approve a prescription-monitoring system aimed at
preventing overprescribing and
abuse.
The state's medical examiners reported that in the first
six months of this
year, 392 people died from overdoses of illegal drugs,
which included cocaine,
heroin, Ecstasy and GHB. In contrast, 563 people died
from prescription drugs
that included painkillers, such as methadone, oxycodone
and hydrocodone and
tranquilizers called benzodiazepines.
Statewide, oxycodone deaths rose from 122 during the
first six months of 2002 to
136 for the same time period in 2003.
2002 deal with state
Purdue Pharma pledged $2 million toward the
prescription-tracking program when
the state ended an investigation into the company's
marketing of OxyContin.
Former Attorney General Bob Butterworth promised the
state would never sue
Purdue for any actions up to the Nov. 1, 2002,
agreement.
Some members of the protest group said they would like
to see a
prescription-tracking system nationwide. And if the
program gets necessary
legislative approval in Florida, the software will be
offered free to other
states.
Lee Nuss of Palm Coast, one of the protesters whose son
died after witnesses
said he abused OxyContin, said she is angry that the
state did not hold Purdue
Pharma accountable for the addiction and overdose deaths
in Florida.
"I'm mad at Florida and Butterworth," Nuss, 56, said.
"For what Purdue pays
their lawyers each month, they could afford a system for
the whole country," she
added, referring to the hundreds of lawsuits the company
is defending against
accusations OxyContin was defective or promoted
aggressively, leading to
addiction and overdose.
Purdue officials said they have successfully fought
about 50 lawsuits without
paying settlements.
Progress being made
Columba Bush knows what it's like to anguish over a
family member caught in the
vice of addiction.
Bush told high-school students at last year's conference
that she devoted her
life to fighting drug abuse after learning of daughter
Noelle's addiction. At
the time, Noelle Bush, now 26, was undergoing treatment
in Orange County's
drug-court program after a January 2002 arrest in
Tallahassee on a charge she
tried to use a fake prescription to buy the antianxiety
drug Xanax.
Noelle Bush graduated from drug court in August 2003,
and the charge was
cleared.
McDonough said that despite the challenges of
prescription-drug abuse and
addiction, the state is making progress on its 1999
pledge to cut illegal drug
use in half by 2005.
A survey this year of nearly 8,000 Florida teens showed
almost every category of
illegal drug use had declined during the past three
years. Heroin use decreased
by 50 percent, powder cocaine by 40 percent.
Depressants, such as tranquilizers,
rose 35 percent.
Crist said recently that the Attorney General's Office
is researching the legal
ramifications of several actions where Purdue and
prescription-drug abuse is
concerned.
"Doing nothing is not an option," he said.
Crist said some of the initiatives he is considering
include opening a new
investigation into Purdue's marketing of OxyContin, and
looking for ways to cut
down on Medicare and Medicaid fraud tied to
overprescribing of prescription
drugs.
State officials estimate about 10 percent of payments
are fraudulent. Florida
officials said the state paid $1.8 billion in Medicaid
payments during the
fiscal year ending 2002, the most recent figures
available. Medicaid payments
for OxyContin came to more than $30 million last year,
state records show. That
was Florida's fourth-highest Medicaid payment for
prescription drugs.
Protesters said they hope Wednesday's demonstration will
push state and federal
officials to take action. But they also want
pharmaceutical companies to be more
accountable.
"Purdue Pharma can and should do more to fight the
OxyContin problem," Bisch
said.
Doris Bloodsworth can be reached at
[email protected] or
407-420-5446.
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