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Federal health regulators will require generic versions of the best-selling painkiller OxyContin to include recent formulation changes designed to make the pill harder to abuse. The Food and Drug Administration said late Tuesday it would not approve any generic versions of OxyContin based on the original formulation because it “poses an increased potential for certain types of abuse.” … OxyContin has long been one the nation’s top-selling prescription painkillers with sales of more than $2.8 billion last year, according to prescription tracker IMS Health. A time-release version of the narcotic oxycodone, the pill was hailed as a breakthrough treatment for...

13News has confirmed that another star of MTV's "Buckwild" reality show has been arrested. Charleston Police arrested Michael Douglas Burford on Friday night for aggravated DUI, according to an official from the South Central Regional Jail. Burford is known as "Bluefoot" on the reality show. The Feb. 15 arrest comes on the heals of the arrest of Salwa Amin earlier this month. During a hearing Wednesday in Nicholas County, a judge reduced the bond for Amin from $200,000 to $100,000. The star of MTV's reality show, "Buckwild", had been in the Central Regional Jail since Sunday. State Police troopers said...

"Buckwild" star Salwa Amin was arrested in the early hours of Monday, Feb. 11 in West Virginia on felony drug possession charges with an intent to deliver. TMZ reported that the 24-year-old Amin is currently in Central Regional Jail awaiting arraignment later today.

HAVERHILL — Shortly after police charged Richard Chase with selling illegal drugs, they said they searched his apartment and found $15,000 in cash, hundreds of Oxycodone pills, a police scanner and a list of area police scanner frequencies. Before he was arrested, Chase used his government-provided EBT card to buy food at a convenience store, police said. When he was arrested, police found the Electronic Benefits Transfer card — otherwise known as food stamps — on him along with a receipt for his purchases. Chase told police “you got me” and said he’s been unable to find a job.

Florida is the epicenter of a prescription drug abuse epidemic. Each day in communities from Jacksonville to Fort Lauderdale, thousands of doses of powerful narcotics like oxycodone are dispensed in pain clinics — storefront operations also called "pill mills." When he started at the Broward County Sheriff's department 30 years ago, Al Lamberti says, the department was raiding crack houses and busting junkies. "Nowadays, the drug dealers are working out of strip malls," he says. Lamberti heads the sheriff's office in a county that includes Fort Lauderdale. It's a city that has become a destination not just for spring breakers...

A Freeport teenager charged with crashing a van into a house, killing a woman gardening, told police she didn’t feel so bad after learning the victim’s age. Kayla Gerdes, 18, was quoted in a written statement to police saying: “The thing that made me feel not so bad was she was old.” The comments were reported by Newsday, citing court records. She added: “I mean, 70 years is a long time to live.”

Note: The following text is a quote: Superseding Indictment Returned Charging Members of the Krazy Locos Criminal Street Gang with Two Homicides, Robbery, Firearms, and Narcotics Charges Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Michael F. McAuliffe, Palm Beach County State Attorney, John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, Hugo Barrera, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of Investigations, and Ric L. Bradshaw, Sheriff, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office,...

WEST PALM BEACH, FL (NBC) - A south Florida police officer has resigned and two others have been suspended after they are caught on tape hitting and kicking a handcuffed suspect. The video paints a disturbing picture. An incident back in late May involving three West Palm Beach police officers following an oxycodone robbery at a CVS. Officers Jason Zangara, Louis Schwartz, and Kirk Graham all became the target of a internal affairs report. West Palm Beach Police Chief Delsa Bush says "in this particular case having the video I chose to substantiate the charge of the use of excessive...

Exponential growth in addiction met with a dramatic reduction in supply, creates a situation where a large number of people get sick and desperate. Prices spike as addicts clamor to find the drugs they need so badly. Alternative, and often illegal, methods for raising funds are employed. Progressively risky behavior and criminal associations occur. People lose jobs, lose housing, and lose families, dismantling a network of support systems that are challenging, if not impossible, to rebuild. The magnitude of people potentially involved will send shockwaves through the criminal justice, social services, health care, and criminal justice service delivery systems as...

SAMHSA announced in March 2008 that Oklahoma topped the nation in prescription painkiller addiction. Effective law enforcement strategies by the DEA and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs have abruptly shut down many of the online pharmacies, loose physician prescription practices, and multiple doctor sourcing. The result is a dramatic reduction in supply. The huge growth in painkiller addiction fueled by cheap and easy supply is being faced with a shutdown in supply. The result will be a sudden overwhelming number of sick and desperate people. Before we become too judgmental of such people, let us not forget...

An actress in the school play. Two star high school football players. The cute hostess at a local restaurant. Two busy workers behind the counter at the pharmacy. All teenagers with promise in an affluent triangle of eastern Morris County towns. But all were criminally charged last week in a drug bust coordinated by the Morris County Prosecutor's Office. Operation Painkiller nabbed 47 adults and seven juveniles, including some current students and a host of alumni of Whippany Park High School in Hanover. Police said they seized more than $70,000 in cash and drugs, including 4 ounces of heroin with...

Register-Herald Editorial 8/27/02 The death of Rebecca Allen of Fairlea was tragic, but the circumstances do not warrant a lawsuit filed by her widowed husband, Brian Allen. That was the ruling of Greenbrier County Circuit Judge James Rowe in a suit Brian Allen filed against Purdue Pharma L.P. of Connecticut, as well as several other companies. The target of the suit was the drug OxyContin, which generally is administered in time-release capsule form. Rebecca Allen broke open the capsules, crushed them and injected them into her veins. The judge ruled that Rebecca Allen died at age 41 because she and...

N E W O R L E A N S, July 17 — A Louisiana judge who is the subject of a federal investigation into possible judicial corruption in suburban New Orleans was indicted Wednesday on federal drug charges. A grand jury indicted District Judge Ronald Bodenheimer and an alleged accomplice on one count of conspiracy to possess and distribute oxycodone and three other charges. Oxycontin is a version of the narcotic. The judge is accused of plotting to plant drugs on a man who had complained about permits and zoning problems with a marina Bodenheimer owns in New Orleans....