As drug agents in Eastern Kentucky crack down on the illegal trade of painkiller OxyContin, law-enforcement officers in Northern Kentucky warned Wednesday that the potent painkiller has become the most abused pharmaceutical drug here, too.

        Federal and state drug enforcers this week have rounded up more than 200 people in Kentucky accused of abusing or illegally distributing the drug, nicknamed Oxy or OC.

        “It is the largest raid in the history of the commonwealth of Kentucky,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Famularo said. “Nearly all of the arrests involved OxyContin.”

Vernon Ratliff is arrested by Kentucky State Police Trooper Scott Hopkins Feb. 6 at his residence near Dorton, Ky. as part of a major crackdown on the sale of OcyContin. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        Eastern Kentucky has joined Greater Cincinnati, and parts of Maine, Pennsylvania and Virginia as the national hot spots for the drug.

        “It is the drug of choice on the street,” said Boone County Police Detective Paula Redman. A former paramedic, Ms. Redman is an expert on illegally distributed prescription drugs and is a member of the multijurisdictional Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force.

        Ms. Redman and other law-enforcement officials could not estimate how many arrests and indictments in Northern Kentucky are linked to the drug. They also said they did not know whether a similar crackdown would occur here.

        The drug is a prescription medication prescribed primarily to cancer victims and others suffering from severe, constant pain.

        “There are legitimate patients who need this medication,” said Ms. Redman. “But it is also being widely abused.”

        A cursory check of Internet chat files revealed numerous people attempting to acquire the drug. After one posting advertising availability, more than 58 responses resulted in eight weeks. One of the respondents posting this month indicated a need for large quantities. Another asked if the original messenger was a police officer.

        Elizabeth Furnish, a Gallatin County woman accused of hiring a hit man to kill her 80-year-old husband, is an OxyContin addict, according to her defense attorney, David Fessler. He said his client has received treatment at the Kenton County Jail for the addiction.

        A report in Wednesday's Enquirer told of a Cincinnati man incarcerated after committing a spree of drugstore robberies to obtain this “heroin of the Midwest.” The Enquirer reported that more than 13,000 doses of the drug have been confiscated by Tristate police in the last year.

        Last week, the Harlan County Sheriff's Department arrested a physician accused of illegally prescribing the medication to patients.

        Dr. Ali Sawaf, 59, of Harlan, Ky., was charged with six counts of illegally prescribing drugs, three counts of bribery of a public servant, three counts of intimidating a witness and two counts of being a persistent felony offender. All are felony charges.

        Purdue Pharma of Norwalk, Conn., released the drug in 1996. Authorities say the drug can produce a high close to heroin.

        Det. Redman said OxyContin is a popular narcotic because it is safer and more reliable than buying heroin or cocaine on the streets or cooking methamphetamines in a lab.

        But it still can be deadly. Mr. Famularo said there have been deaths from OxyContin overdoses in eastern Kentucky.

        OxyContin abuse knows no age restrictions, Det. Redman said. The people arrested this week ranged in age from 20 to 65, state officials said.

        Often, people will go to several different doctors and get duplicate prescriptions for OxyContin. Other times they will copy, steal or forge prescriptions. There are reports of stolen doctors' prescription pads resulting in hundreds of fake prescriptions.

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