Pike and Perry counties in Eastern Kentucky are two areas that might receive business-skills education training as part of a grant made by the manufacturer of OxyContin.

        Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut-based maker of the prescription painkiller is offering training to teachers in rural areas of Maine, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia where abuse of OxyContin and other prescription painkillers is a severe problem.

        Purdue Pharma is spending $100,000 to train educators to teach business skills. The company's rationale is that bleak economic prospects can lead young people to abuse drugs.

        Jim Heins, Purdue Pharma's associate director of public affairs said Pike and Perry are the probable recipients of the education training because “those are two counties were abuse has been most prevalent.”

        A February drug bust in Eastern Kentucky involved more than 200 people charged in connection with OxyContin abuse and illicit sales. Mr. Heins said the educational training will be given to five teachers per state, with superintendents choosing who will be trained.

        “When you're looking at why drug abuse occurs in communities, one of those factors is just a sense of hopelessness,” said Pamela Bennett, the company's director of advocacy.

        OxyContin is a pain medication released over time to give relief of chronic pain.

        But some drug abusers extract a concentrated rush from the pill, similar to the sensation from heroin. They snort it or inject it after breaking up the pills.

        Mr. Heins said the teacher training ideally would begin in September, with teachers provided with a full curriculum on entrepreneurship to go into place in the new school year.

        “I don't think that it (the training) directly addresses the current abuse of OxyContin.” Mr. Heins said. Purdue Pharma is doing other things with agencies in the legal, medical and scientific communities to help fight abuse of the drug. These include task-force meetings with states' attorneys general, prescription monitoring system research and research to develop a non-breakable time-release mechanism for the drug.

        OxyContin users who have become addicted are suing Purdue Pharma and others associated with it in all states where the business education program is being offered. In Kentucky, lawsuits have been filed in Eastern Kentucky by attorney Bill Hayes of Middlesboro and by a Lexington lawyerPete Perlmann. Mr. Perlmann and Mr. Hayes asked Cincinnati lawyer Janet G. Abaray to join in the suit, which the attorneys are seeking to have declared a class-action. Ms. Abaray has filed a suit on behalf of the brother of a Cincinnati woman who died of an OxyContin overdose.

        In Virginia, a group of OxyContin users have filed a suit asking for $5.2 billion.

        The prescription drug problem in Maine's Washington County has become so severe officials cite it as an impediment to economic development and as a significant public health issue.

        Purdue Pharma, which has been criticized for its aggressive marketing of OxyContin, has canceled plans to distribute a 160-milligram dose, has trained doctors to spot fraud and is working to develop a new pain medication that cannot be abused easily.

        The company also will train 20 teachers in the four states to teach entrepreneurship to improve the economic outlook for young people in areas where the drug is abused.

        In Maine, the company has offered scholarships and travel to five high school teachers to attend training this month put on by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurs.

        Dianne Tilton, director of the Sunrise County Economic Development Council, said if the drug company is trying to better its image, she's glad it chose teaching business skills as the way .

        “It's smart for Purdue Pharma to make that kind of investment. Economic hardship creates despair, and despair creates destructive habits,” she said. “Knowing possibilities is one of the things that gives people hope.”

        The Associated Press to this report.

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