The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 7 of 14)

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OxyContin is an opioid analgesic that truly is a double-edged sword.

Yes, it can be dangerously addictive, particularly to those for whose use it's not intended. It's a major cause of crime, violent or otherwise, in Central Appalachia, particularly southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia. It's so powerful that people still from their families, each other, write forged checks, batter each other -- with or without weapons, you name it -- to get the money to support hundreds-of-dollars-a-day habits.

As a former reporter on a small daily in that region, I covered the police beat in a county seat, the county itself and the state police barracks there and in an adjacent county. One day, at the local barracks on a story, I chatted with some state cops -- one, a sergeant who was the detachment commander in the adjacent county -- about drug-related crimes and Oxy arose.

The sergeant told me and the other trooper about a woman in his county who did terrible things with her body to get money for Oxy fixes. Her reason? The cop said she once told him that Oxy's high was a 1,000 times greater than anyone could imagine a sexual orgasm to be. By the way, I've heard undercover state cops, including ones that worked on a regional drug-and-violent-crimes task force, say they've heard the same thing from other addict-criminals.

Oxy's other edge -- and this is where I wonder if we should ban such pea-brains as Rep. Lynch from holding office -- is that it is a powerful painkiller for people with terminal cancer. My late brother, who died in early February from brain cancer that metastasized from his right lung to his brain, had that prescribed, as well as morphine, Percocet and Hydrocodone.

I have yet to meet a nurse or doctor who said such drugs were anything less than wonder drugs for pain management for terminally ill cancer patients. But they emphasized its intended use is pain management.

p>Rep. Lynch is way over his intellectual and political head with his knee-jerk suggestion. May he never have to learn first- or second-hand the medical power of Oxy. But may he learn that banning the symptom isn't addressing the root of a problem. Perhaps he's never heard of law enforcement? Perhaps he can direct his brain in that general direction? br> -- C. Kenna Amos Jr. br> Princeton, West Virginia /p> p> SHELVED br> Re: Christopher Orlet's

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