The company is even researching new drugs that would be more tamper-proof and less addictive. But those efforts are years away from pharmacy shelves. Hazard isn't willing to wait. In recent months police and community activists have joined forces to get OxyContin off the streets, and out of their town. That could prove difficult.
Hazard has a long tradition of self-medication.
Moonshine and marijuana, grown in its fertile soil, have long helped to blot out depression, boredom, even physical pain. Eastern Kentucky has one of the nation's highest cancer rates, and many residents suffer from chronic mining and timber injuries. OxyContin seemed like the most potent antidote yet to the local despair. The euphoria sucks you in. When the then police chief, Rod Maggard, first heard about Oxy in the summer of 1999, he had to ask his pharmacist what it was.