To the editor:
Monitoring prescriptions of OxyContin sounds like a good place to start to prevent increased abuse (“Few State Track Prescriptions as Way to Prevent Overdoses,” front page, Dec. 21). But we must also increase drug treatment programs and sponsor broader prevention and education campaigns.
As a treatment provider in New York City, Odyssey House is not yet admitting abusers of OxyContin in anywhere near the numbers of abusers of illegal drugs like crack cocaine and heroin. But if this drug is not sufficiently controlled, that could change fast.
It is up to drug treatment and prevention specialists, doctors, law enforcement and pharmaceutical companies to work together to ensure that powerful addictive substances like OxyContin are safely used, not abused.
Peter Provet
President, Odyssey House
New York, Dec. 22, 2001