In lew of this information, I sent the following letter to the Times. We at Ocpm, urge you to do the same.
Thank you.

Letter to the Editor
The New York Times

As a member of society who lives with chronic pain daily, I call upon the Times to issue a statement of apology for leading the country to believe that Oxycodone is the scrounge of the nation. You have lead readers to believe that Oxycodone overdoses are the result from patients taking the drug to relieve pain from medical conditions.

By your actions, you have portrayed Oxycontin as a homegrown weapon of mass destruction, which has inflicted enormous damage to the medical community's attempts to treat chronic pain in millions of Americans.

By your actions, you have spread the "Oxy" hysteria that reaches from coast to coast, effecting millions of, not only sufferer's but those that treat them.

If you had researched this further, you would have found that most those abuse cases who have died, turned out instead having consumed a cocktail of illegal drugs, not just Oxycontin.

If you had done any homework, you would have found that based on autopsy reports from 23 states between 1999 and 2001, the mast majority of Oxycodone related deaths (96.7 percent or 919 deaths) had multiple drugs in their systems at the time of death. This study was conducted by scientists and has been available to the public for over a year. (http://www.jatox.com/jan-june03.htm)

Last but not least, if you had CARED, you would have gone out of your way to back up any claims presented to you against this lifesaving drug.

Instead you have, by your actions, shaped the future of millions of Americans with chronic pain.

An apology…at the very least is definitely in order here.

Choard
Our Chronic Pain Mission

ActUp STAT
Standing Together For Adequate Treatment

• OxyContin does not cause death. It's been proven in almost all cases where there has been death where OxyContin was involved, other substances were found in the bloodstream.
  (March issue of JAT: http://www.jatox.com/jan-june03.htm#)

• To False Claims: “OxyContin is a highly destructive controlled substance”.
  This simply is not true when TAKEN AS PRESCRIBED BY A PHYSICIAN. (key words: “Taken as prescribed”) This is totally irresponsible reporting at it's best.

• And yet another:
  “OxyContin is a substance that is in great demand because it's so addictive”
  Oxy is only addicting to the DRUG ADDICT, not to the pain patient who takes this medication to live.

• It's one thing to print a drug panic article to sell papers when writing about ILLEGAL drugs. The drug written about here is a LEGAL drug. The only people hurt by reports like this are suffering patients who already have problems getting their medicines.

• There is a well recognized and documented epidemic of under treated chronic pain in this country. Articles like this one in your paper are only making the situation worse.

• Doctors are afraid to prescribe pain medicine. Stories like this will get more physicians arrested and as a result, patients will suffer.

• Articles written like yours here cannot be considered good reporting because it ignores the real problem: THE UNDER TREATMENT OF PAIN

• Newspapers need to report about the Pain Crisis that exists in this country today. It is REAL and deserves to be reported.

• Reports like this are capitalizing on the War on Drugs, which is a failure. It supports the drug warrior parasites and only causes more harm to our society.

• What are people like you going to do when as a result of the irresponsible slant written, find yourselves (or someone you love) suffering with chronic pain? And you can't get treatment because there are no doctors left with the courage to prescribe you pain medication?