An interesting development concerning that series of articles from
the Orlando Sentinel a while back. I included the whole text here
because the newspaper's site requires paid subscriptions.

URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/138504nm01-29-04.htm
(subscription required!)

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Is Ex-APD Cop OxyContin Victim?
By Chris Vogel
Journal Staff Writer

Congressional hearings are planned in Florida next month on the
powerful painkiller OxyContin, prompted at least in part by a series
of newspaper stories that focused on the addiction of a former
Albuquerque police officer.
David Rokisky, according to stories in the Orlando Sentinel,
became addicted to the painkiller after a doctor prescribed the drug
to him for back pain in October 2002.
"He didn't even drink or smoke," the Sentinel reported.
However, Albuquerque police and court records show that Rokisky
had a history of using and dealing illegal drugs before his doctor
gave him OxyContin.
Rokisky, an APD officer from 1989 to 1997, was one of a group of
officers who taught anti-drug classes to fifth-graders.
According to police reports, Rokisky was fired from APD in
December 1997.
Seven months later, Rokisky was arrested in El Paso, after U.S.
Customs inspectors caught him sneaking anabolic steroids and
painkillers into the United States from Mexico, according to an APD
report.
In November 1998, Rokisky "talked freely about his drug dealing"
with a New Mexico undercover narcotics agent, the records show.
A day later, Rokisky supplied the officer with a sixteenth of an
ounce of methamphetamine, records show. During the sale, Rokisky
bragged about quitting APD because he made more money selling drugs,
records state.
Police arrested Rokisky in April 1999 after he and another man
sold an undercover agent more than half an ounce of suspected
methamphetamine, which later tested positive as cocaine, police and
court records show.
Rokisky pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of
cocaine distribution and was sentenced to six months of house arrest
and three years of probation.
After Rokisky was sentenced in April 2000, his attorney, Ron
Koch, told the Journal that Rokisky "had problems" with cocaine and
steroids.
Three weeks after the arrest, the other defendant told police
that Rokisky frequently used cocaine.
The Sentinel published five features on Rokisky in October 2003
as part of a larger series on OxyContin abuse in Florida.
U.S. Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., said in a December news release
that he requested that a House oversight committee hold hearings
examining OxyContin abuse following the Sentinel series.
The hearings are scheduled to begin Feb. 9.
Elaine Kramer, Orlando Sentinel managing editor, defended the
Rokisky articles.
"The series was a serial about a person's experience being
addicted to OxyContin and going through detox," Kramer said. "We ran
the basic searches (on Rokisky) that any newsroom does, and the fact
is we learned about the allegations when we got a letter from
(OxyContin manufacturer) Purdue Pharma on December 15. We've been
looking into the allegations and are still doing the reporting."
Rokisky could not be reached for comment for this story.
Tim Bannon, spokesman for Purdue Pharma, said he accessed
Albuquerque Journal articles online about Rokisky's past drug and
legal problems.
"I don't fault Mica for having these hearings. I'm sure his
decision was based on more than the Sentinel articles, but
nevertheless it's a shame the paper published such a transparently
false image of Rokisky to put forth as the picture of a victim of the
medical system," he said.
"Turning the truth upside down has serious consequences if it
misleads public policymakers. It's absolutely intolerable."
OxyContin is the trade name for the generic narcotic oxycodone
hydrochloride. It is a painkiller similar to morphine and is
prescribed by doctors for patients enduring moderate to severe pain
over a long period of time, according to the Center for Drug
Evaluation and Research Web site.
Use of OxyContin "can result in physical dependence ... (but)
This is not the same as addiction," the Web site said. "Physical
dependence can be treated by slowly under the advice of a physician
decreasing the OxyContin dose. ..."
The National Drug Intelligence Center Web site states that city
and county coroners' offices have been tracking OxyContin-related
deaths since 2000 and that the illegal distribution and abuse of the
drug is found most in Eastern states.