They're snorting, shooting and chewing it for a rapid rush that resembles heroin. In fact, police are finding that OxyContin abusers who run out of the drug and can't find more on the street are turning to heroin, which is cheaper. Although Pennsylvania has joined Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia on the short list of states with widespread OxyContin problems, no one is calling it an epidemic. Drug maker Purdue Pharma LP is not acknowledging that its product has caused any deaths. As it conducts its own research, the company contends that numbers reported by coroners, medical examiners and the media are inflated, inconclusive and unreliable.
All parties agree, however, that there is cause for alarm.
In nearly three decades with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Pittsburgh agent Dennis Johnson has never witnessed anything like OxyContin's sudden spurt. I had no inkling that this would be a problem. Rooted in the region Ground zero for abuse in this part of the state is Cambria County, which has seen at least eight OxyContin-related deaths since 1999, running just ahead of Blair County's seven deaths, according to the coroners in both counties. There also have been deaths attributed to OxyContin in Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer and Somerset counties. Johnstown is home to one of the first drug task forces in the country to target OxyContin.