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Congress tackles OxyContin
Legislators' 1st hearing will be in Orlando in February
By Doris Bloodsworth
Sentinel Staff Writer
December 5, 2003
A congressional panel announced Thursday that it will begin hearings in February to investigate the growing national epidemic of OxyContin addiction, abuse and overdoses.
The first hearing will take place in Orlando.
"Just the sheer number of problems related with the drug and the number of deaths have reached epidemic proportions," said Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, who cited a five-part October series on the painkiller in the Orlando Sentinel in making his request for the hearings.
Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the House Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources subcommittee, said the first hearing would be Feb. 9.
"The problem of illegal prescription-drug abuse is a serious one, and one which the subcommittee that I chair will be examining closely in the next session of Congress," Souder said.
"Although OxyContin has legitimate medical uses, we must remember that it is an opiate like heroin, and thus can be both addictive and deadly," he said. "As such, it should be treated with great caution. We need to develop new ways to curb the growing abuse of OxyContin and similar drugs through education about the health dangers of abuse and through effective law-enforcement measures against illegal diversion."
The announcement came in the same week that Florida state Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, and Gov. Jeb Bush called for state investigations into overprescribing of the powerful painkiller.
Jim Heins, a spokesman for Purdue Pharma, the Stamford, Conn.-based maker of OxyContin, said, "We share the concerns about prescription-drug abuse, including OxyContin, in Florida and elsewhere in the country. That's why we support measures that help curb illegal trafficking and abuse without restricting access to patients who need these medications."
OxyContin was originally marketed for cancer pain and was approved in 1995 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for moderate to severe pain. But the painkiller has come under fire because of nationwide reports of abuse, addiction and overdose deaths.
Fred Pauzar of Winter Park, whose son Chris, 22, died of OxyContin overdose Nov. 25, lauded Mica's announcement.
"By calling for congressional hearings into this matter, he is going to save lives," said Pauzar, chief executive of Winter Park-based Fugleberg Koch Architects and president of a Tallahassee lobbying firm.
"Congressman Mica has always shown integrity and courage," Pauzar said. "At the same time, he is working to save tremendous resources needed for other kinds of medical care," referring to estimated millions spent in Medicaid payments for OxyContin being diverted to illegal abuse.
Pauzar said his son, whose memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, began taking OxyContin for a minor shoulder injury but quickly became addicted. Chris Pauzar, who had just enrolled at the University of Central Florida, went through detox and drug rehabilitation for the morphinelike painkiller in September. But friends said Nov. 25 that he commented, "One more time won't kill me."
In October, the Orlando Sentinel reported that deaths in Florida from oxycodone, the key ingredient in OxyContin, are exceeding those from heroin. Florida medical examiners reported 573 deaths caused by oxycodone in 2001 and 2002.
In addition to reporting on the deaths and addiction linked to OxyContin, the Sentinel also focused on Purdue Pharma's marketing of its billion-dollar-producing drug. The paper's review of 500 available autopsy results from 2001 and 2002 showed that OxyContin was named in 83 percent of the 247 cases in which a specific oxycodone medication was identified.
Oxycodone, which comes from poppies as opium does, is in dozens of other painkillers. The exact medication was not determined in the remaining 253 deaths, including those still under criminal investigation.
Mica said the Feb. 9 hearing would include input from state and Central Florida law-enforcement and medical experts, Florida drug czar Jim McDonough and others interested in the problems tied to OxyContin. Mica said he and Souder would meet next week to iron out further details of the investigation.
Another congressman, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., is expected to release the results of a government report on the marketing of OxyContin in the next few weeks.
Kay Kelley-Moretti of Milford, Conn., who led a protest at Purdue headquarters after her son Jason Kelley died of accidental overdose this year and who helped organize an Orlando rally two weeks ago, said the hearings were a sign their voices had been heard.
"Our children who have died from the epidemic will never return," she said. "Now we need every U.S. congressman in every state across this nation to do the same [as Mica]." "These senseless deaths have got to stop."
Doris Bloodsworth can be reached at [email protected] or 407-420-5446. |