Drug dealers in eastern Kentucky beat pharmacists to new form of OxyContin

Drug dealers in eastern Kentucky beat pharmacists to new form of OxyContin

Friday, May 21, 2004 PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The generic form of the powerful painkiller OxyContin already is for sale on the black market in Appalachia, even though it’s not yet available in all pharmacies.

Dan Smoot, chief detective for an anti-drug task force in eastern Kentucky, said undercover narcotics investigators began purchasing the generic drug from street-level dealers earlier this week. Investigators suspect a shipment of the drug was stolen from a storage building in eastern Kentucky.
“When we first got the pills, we didn’t know what they were,” Smoot said. “They look nothing like the OxyContin we were familiar with.”

OxyContin is a long-lasting version of oxycodone, a narcotic considered important therapy for many patients suffering chronic, moderate to severe pain from illnesses such as cancer. The tablet, when swallowed whole, provides 12 hours of pain relief.

But the drug can produce a quick and potentially lethal high if it is chewed, snorted or injected. It has been linked to more than 100 deaths and bears the government’s strongest warning label.
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high atop the Appalachian mountains soon. :-)