OxyContin News
If you would like more information on OxyContin
addiction or OxyContin abuse, please contact
us to speak with an OxyContin attorney.
| • |
May 13 ,
2004 |
• |
May 10, 2002 |
| • |
October 3 , 2003 |
• |
May 8, 2002 |
| • |
September 19, 2003 |
• |
May 1, 2002 |
| • |
September 16, 2003 |
• |
March 7, 2002 |
| • |
September 4, 2003 |
• |
February 1, 2002 |
| • |
April 15, 2002 |
• |
August 20, 2001 |
| • |
May 30, 2002 |
• |
July 21, 2001 |
| • |
May 29, 2002 |
• |
July 9, 2001 |
| • |
May 22, 2002 |
• |
May 11, 2001 |
| • |
May 15, 2002 |
• |
February 9, 2001 |
| • |
May 11, 2002 |
• |
July 25, 2001 |
| |
|
|
|
September 16, 2003
DEA urges federal drug advisory panel to limit OxyContin sales
The DEA’s office of diversion control deputy assistant administrator
has presented data to a federal drug advisory panel in hopes of
further restriction OxyContin. The data showed that up to 1,000
deaths a year are due to the use of OxyContin and the DEA called
on the panel to ban family doctors and nonspecialists from prescribing
OxyContin. The panel did not vote for restricting OxyContin prescriptions
but did support the proposal to require doctors receive special
training before being able to prescribe OxyContin. For more information
on OxyContin, contact us
to confer with an OxyContin lawyer.
September 4, 2003
OxyContin ads criticized. Some people do not approve of
the OxyContin ads running on both television and radio stations
in 18 markets because of Purdue Pharma’s failure to specifically
acknowledge the wide misuse of OxyContin. Director of the Public
Citizen’s Health Research Group Sidney Wolfe believes the
OxyContin commercials are just a way for Purdue Pharma to appear
as “good citizens in a public-relations campaign that is designed
to neutralize the very dangers they designed,” (NY Times,
9/4/03).
For more information on OxyContin contact
us to confer with an OxyContin lawyer.
April 15, 2002
The DEA announced OxyContin might have been the cause of 464 drug
overdose deaths in the last two years. This OxyContin death figure
is significantly higher than the previous estimates. OxyContin manufacturer,
Purdue Pharma, and the FDA said they were reviewing autopsy reports
as well. The DEA stated, “Recent media reports of ‘hundreds
of deaths’ attributed to OxyContin can now be substantiated
by credible scientific evidence.” The DEA said OxyContin abuse
has grown faster than abuse of any other prescription drug in decades.
May 30, 2002
A grand jury indicted a police officer in Seaman on felony drug
charges for trafficking in drugs. The officer was caught on video
surveillance selling OxyContin.
May 29, 2002
Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani teamed up with Purdue Pharma regarding
the controversial drug OxyContin. Giuliani is helping the company
to fight prescription drug abuse.
An armed robber stole $4,000 worth of OxyContin from a store pharmacy.
This was the most taken in an armed robbery from Port St. Lucie
according to the police.
top of page
May 22, 2002
A 20-year old man died of an overdose of OxyContin after taking
it at a birthday party when offered to him. He then suffered a massive
and fatal heart attack. His family hopes to send a message to parents
to better pay attention to their kids’ activities and to the
prescription drugs kept in the home.
May 15, 2002
Dr. Luyao was released after 49 days in jail under the conditions
that she must remain in her home from 9PM-7AM, cannot travel without
a family member, cannot apply for a new passport, and cannot practice
medicine. Luyao had been charged with over-prescribing OxyContin
in order to pocketing cash in exchange that led to the deaths of
12 people. Some of her patients had become addicted to OxyContin,
which led to their deaths.
OxyContin first appeared in rural areas and referred to as “pillbilly”
or “poor man’s heroin”, spreading from Florida to
Maine. The government has now estimated that about 300 people have
died from OxyContin overdoses over the past two years. Some instances
of OxyContin addiction have started as legitimate prescriptions
and ended up as fatal cases. Doctors have lost their licenses and
been charged with over prescribing the dangerous drug that is considered
medically unnecessary by some.
top of page
May 11, 2002
In Spartanburg, South Carolina, the country coroner said his
office alone investigated 22 deaths involving OxyContin. About 30%
of all accidental drug-related deaths are from OxyContin according
to the coroner.
May 10, 2002
A doctor, Dr. Luyao, was charged with 12 counts of drug trafficking
OxyContin after state investigators testified at her bond hearing
that she was pocketing cash in exchange for unnecessary OxyContin
prescriptions. Twelve of Luyao’s patients died from OxyContin
overdoses. Her bond was reduced from $1.83 million to $455,000 after
the Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled it was too high. Last
year an undercover state investigator visited Luyao for treatment
and received OxyContin prescriptions without a physical examination
on several occasions.
top of page
May 8, 2002
A southern Vermont teenager may be the first case of a high school
student dying from an OxyContin overdose. The teen stole the drugs
from a friend.
May 1, 2002
Safeway in Sterling, Virginia has been robbed three times in two
months with OxyContin being the target. Some pharmacies have stopped
carrying OxyContin because of fear of becoming a target of future
crimes due to the popularity of the powerful painkiller on the black
market. The Loudoun Country Sheriff’s office was concerned
with the way the robberies were conducted, describing it as “brazen”.
top of page
March 7, 2002
A state circuit court has convicted a doctor of four counts of manslaughter,
a single count of racketeering, and five counts of unlawful delivery
of OxyContin. The doctor, Dr. Graves, was charged in connected with
four of his patient’s deaths that he had prescribed OxyContin
to. He is now the first doctor to be convicted of manslaughter or
murder for deaths that are related to OxyContin in the nation. Graves
is seeking a retrial, but a professor of pharmacy thinks that, “Dr.
Graves portray himself as the victim of overzealous prosecutors,
bent on locking up innocent doctors in this country. The only victims
in this case were the hundreds of patients to whom he doled out
the drugs.” Referred to as a “prescription mill”,
Graves was making $500,000 a year with OxyContin. At least two other
doctors are facing manslaughter charges in connection wit OxyContin
overdoses.
top of page
February 1, 2002
Kentucky is among 15 states to have a prescription drug-monitoring
program, with half a dozen other states considering them and advocates
pushing for a national system to link the sate databases. Congress
proved $2 million for this year to start prescription drug monitoring
systems but advocates feel that is not good enough. The Supreme
Court ruled in 1977 that state officials could track prescriptions
as long as the information is kept private. Included in the 15 states
that now have tacking programs are California, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma,
Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, and Washington.
top of page
August 20, 2001
More and more patients are going into the ER asking for OxyContin,
and in some instances, demanding it, according to a medical director
of an emergency department at Central Florida Regional Hospital.
The ER is seeing more instances of OxyContin requests because of
the increasingly hard problem individuals are experiencing getting
it on the street or the pharmacy. New excuses and ways of trying
to get OxyContin have forced ER physicians to conduct careful checks
on records and to verify claims. OxyContin abusers have shown they
will go to great lengths for the drug.
top of page
July 21, 2001
A man pleaded guilty to murder, drug distribution, and unlawful
disposal of a human body after he injected OxyContin into a partially
paralyzed man’s arm, that was a friend of his, in search of
a painkiller. The friend died after being injected with OxyContin
and the man panicked and dragged the body outside before he called
911. The man faces up to 81 years in prison, one of the first murder
charges related to OxyContin. The authorities had decided since
the man was selling the drug and helped his friend inject it, it
was just as if he had shot him with a gun. So far, OxyContin has
been linked to a minimum of 120 overdose deaths in the U.S.
top of page
July 9, 2001
Pharmacies and law enforcement agencies have become very aware and
alert of OxyContin thefts. The police in areas of the Midwest, Delaware,
and Massachusetts have increased patrols around pharmacies in response
to the alarmingly high number of OxyContin related thefts. Some
pharmacies have discontinued carrying the powerful drug in response
to the growing number of crime related to OxyContin that has been
identified in more and more areas of the country. The DEA suggested
Purdue Pharma, OxyContin manufacturer, reformulate the painkiller
to reduce the instances of abuse.
May 11, 2001
Purdue Pharma, OxyContin manufacturer, has suspended shipments of
their strongest dose of OxyContin due to the growing number of OxyContin
abuse problems.
top of page
February 9, 2001
OxyContin prescription drug intended as a painkiller for cancer
patients is being especially abused in areas of the East. OxyContin
abusers are going taking many measures to feed their OxyContin addiction.
One of the largest drug raids in Kentucky history, authorities arrested
207 people on OxyContin charges after an 8-month investigation.
Kentucky is not the only area affected by OxyContin, as a surge
of OxyContin popularity has started to infect Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Maine, in addition to other
areas. Even medical staff has been involved in OxyContin crimes,
and during the Kentucky OxyContin “roundup” a nurse was
charged with stealing OxyContin from her hospital, in addition to
other suspects that worked in a doctor’s office and that called
in prescriptions of OxyContin to pharmacies. Other states have had
instances of doctors and medical staff being arrested in connection
with OxyContin fraud.
July 25, 2001
A Black Box Warning is being added to the labels of controversial
painkiller OxyContin because of the continuing reports of OxyContin
abuse and overdose deaths. A Black Box Warning is the strongest
type of FDA warning issued. OxyContin has been attributed to dozens
of overdoses and is in high demand, obtained by theft and fraud.
top of page
|
Prevalence
of 
