The fight against OxyContin abuse

Black Hills High School graduate Samantha Studebaker, 22, became addicted to OxyContin two years ago, after a co-worker's offer of a quick - and free - fix for her headache while she worked a shift at the Tumwater Costco.
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About OxyContin

OxyContin is a pain medication that belongs to the opioid family, which includes Dilaudid, Vicodin, Percocet, methadone and morphine. OxyContin, manufactured by Purdue Pharma, is distinctive for its patented "time release" of oxycodone — the active opioid in OxyContin. It is meant to alleviate pain by releasing oxycodone gradually.

• Abuse and addiction: Samantha Studebaker said she and others who abuse the drug can easily defeat OxyContin's timed-release coating by crushing the pills and snorting or smoking them for a quicker high. OxyContin, like most opioids, is addictive, meaning that users develop a physical tolerance and can suffer from withdrawal symptoms if use of the drug is stopped abruptly. At the height of Studebaker's addiction, she said, she was taking up to eight or nine 80 milligram OxyContin pills a day.

• Effects: According to the Drug Enforcement Administration's Web site, the basic pharmacological effects of OxyContin are relief from pain, "sedation, euphoria, feelings of relaxation, respiratory depression, constipation, papillary constriction, and cough suppression." Studebaker described OxyContin's effects as giving her a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, "like nothing can rain on your parade."

• Danger: Respiratory depression can be fatal when the drug is abused, according to the DEA. Since 2005, 116 people have died from drug overdoses in Thurston County, Coroner Gary Warnock said. The number of deaths from drug overdoses each year has remained relatively steady during that time, with 29 in 2005; 27 in 2006; 33 in 2007; and 27 in 2008.

Warnock said that in 2008 alone, there were several overdose deaths that were caused by "drug cocktails" of prescription drugs, including OxyContin, and other drugs.

Ann Lima of the state Department of Health's center for health statistics has said that in 2004, 267 Washington residents died from prescription opioids, the latest data available. That was up from 23 in 1995.

Ron Friedman is an assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle who last year prosecuted a burglary ring of 30 people who were breaking into pharmacies across the Northwest and California to steal OxyContin and other prescription drugs. Friedman said the abuse of OxyContin and other opioids can be fatal, unlike the abuse of some other drugs. "These prescription drugs are really dangerous," he said.

• Who is given OxyContin: The drug is commonly prescribed for cancer patients and others who suffer chronic, long-term pain. It also is prescribed to people who have pain during recovery from surgery — including dental surgery.

• History: In 2007, the pharmaceutical company that patented OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, pleaded guilty to misleading the public about the drug's risk of addiction. Purdue Pharma's president, top lawyer and former chief medical officer were ordered to pay $634.5 million in fines for claiming that the drug was less addictive and that users were less likely to abuse OxyContin than other pain medications. Purdue Pharma also agreed to pay $19.5 million to 26 states and Washington, D.C., to settle complaints that it encouraged physicians to overprescribe OxyContin.

The Olympian

Soon, Studebaker says, she was paying up to $40 or $80 a pill — $1 a milligram — to that same co-worker to feed her addiction to the painkiller. At first, Studebaker used her credit cards to pay for the pills.

Then she began stealing.

In September, Studebaker was caught after embezzling more than $32,000 from Costco over about five months to pay for the OxyContin pills that her co-worker sold at increasingly high prices. Studebaker, who worked in Costco's returns department, said she entered fraudulent returns for items, then pocketed the cash.

Studebaker's story is part of a nationwide epidemic of prescription-drug abuse. In the late 1990s, OxyContin abuse ravaged communities in the East, particularly in New England and parts of the South, where it earned the name "hillbilly heroin."

In the Northwest, including Thurston County, OxyContin addiction fuels both property crime and violent crime. In 2008, the Thurston County Narcotics Task Force seized about 700 OxyContin tablets that had been diverted for illegal use, said task force commander Lt. Loreli Thompson.

Studebaker said she had never been in trouble with the law before her September arrest, and she wouldn't have started stealing if not for her addiction.

She said her co-worker had a prescription for OxyContin but didn't need the medication.

"She had a neck injury and kept telling her doctor that she needed more, but she was OK," Studebaker said. Then, "she stopped taking them and just started selling them all to me."

Tumwater police confirmed that Studebaker's former co-worker was investigated for selling the OxyContin, but the Thurston County Prosecutor's Office declined to prosecute the case.

Studebaker said that at the height of her addiction, she was taking up to eight or nine 80-milligram OxyContin pills a day.