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WOLF: LIMIT OXYCONTIN TO TREATMENT OF SEVERE PAIN ONLY
Public Information Campaign Warning about Dangers of Abusing Drug Should be Initiated

Washington, D.C. - Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) today called for the powerful painkilling drug OxyContin to be limited to only treating severe pain.

In a letter to Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services, Wolf also said a public information campaign about the dangers of abusing OxyContin should be instituted similar to what was done last month after a professional baseball player died from taking the dietary supplement ephedra.

A copy of Wolf’s letter to Thompson is below.

March 28, 2003

The Honorable Tommy Thompson
Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Ave SW Ste 615
Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Secretary Thompson:

In December 2001, the Commerce-Justice-State and the Judiciary appropriations subcommittee held a hearing on the illegal diversion of the prescription drug OxyContin, a pain-killing Schedule II narcotic manufactured by Purdue Pharma L.P. One of the witnesses, the father of a recovering OxyContin addict, told a gripping story of the devastating impact the drug has had on his family and his son, who was in his early 20s. He proudly told the committee how his son had just finished rehab and had kicked his addiction. Sadly, a few months after appearing before the subcommittee, the son died as a result of abusing the drug.

When used properly, OxyContin is considered a wonder drug, especially for the terminally ill cancer patients. I know what it is like to see people suffer from cancer. Both my mother and father died of cancer. I can remember my mother constantly asking the nurses for more morphine but being told she couldn’t have any more. My mother was in a great deal of pain. OxyContin, if it had been available when she was dying, probably would have made her a lot more comfortable at the end.

When used illegally, however, OxyContin destroys families and communities. It also can lead to death. This powerful painkiller has increasingly become a drug of choice for people who choose to abuse it by chewing it or grinding it up. By disabling the time release mechanism in OxyContin, abusers get a heroin-like high.

Initially, cases of abuse and illegal diversion occurred primarily in poor, rural communities in Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio. Abuse is no longer limited to Appalachia. The drug has found its way to urban areas and there are now reports of widespread abuse as far away as Arizona. Florida, I am told, has been hit extremely hard.

Several pharmacies in my congressional District have been robbed at gun point in recent months for OxyContin. No money was taken; the robbers only demanded the drug. Earlier this month, a prominent defense lawyer in northern Virginia who twice served as a local prosecutor in Prince William County pleaded guilty to federal drug charges linked to a large-scale investigation into the illegal distribution of OxyContin and other painkillers.

Communities where the illegal drug has taken hold are being completely destroyed. I am told there is one county in southwest Virginia where no one isn’t either using the drug, knows someone using the drug or been the victim of a crime by someone needing the drug.

When a professional baseball player recently died after taking the dietary supplement

ephedra, your agency immediately issued fact sheets regarding potential serious risks of dietary supplements containing ephedra. You were even quoted as cautioning all Americans about using dietary supplements that contain ephedra.

According to fact sheets produced by the FDA, two deaths, four heart attacks, nine strokes and five psychiatric cases involving ephedra have been reported. More than 240 people have died from the abuse of OxyContin and countless numbers of families and communities have been torn apart by this drug.

Your agency has done a good job educating the public about the dangers of ephedra and other dietary supplements. I urge you to initiate a similar public information campaign about the dangers of abusing OxyContin.

I have previously written to your department asking for a review of the marketing of OxyContin and its classification for treatment of moderate to severe pain. The Food and Drug Administration did change the warning label on OxyContin but more needs to be done. The drug should not be marketed to treat moderate pain. I urge you to no longer allow OxyContin to be prescribed for moderate pain.

Too many people have died, too many families have suffered and too many communities have been devastated by the improper use of this drug.

Sincerely,

Frank R. Wolf

Chairman,
Subcommittee on Commerce-Justice-State and the Judiciary