Question 18: Are the media somehow not aware that narcotics have been the drugs of choice since antiquity?

Raymond Sinatra, MD: One last question ... "Thanks for hosting the discussion on the emerging media circus regarding OxyContin. Here's my query, is the media somehow not aware that narcotics have been the drugs of abuse since antiquity?" I think we've covered that pretty well. Any last minute comments on that?

Commander John Burke: Understand this is kind of one of my pet peeves, this is John Burke, that we have ... and I'm sure several people on this panel or all of you have been asked a lot of questions by the media in regards to this. And it's not what they want to hear unfortunately, they don't want to hear that, they want to hear sensational stories about how people have had these addiction problems with OxyContin. So yes, I think that we all have ... I'm sure other members of the panel have, I know I've tried repeatedly and usually you're cut off or it never finds its way into the article.

Neil Jobalia, MD: I would like to make one comment on defending at least one newspaper, and that was the Cincinnati Enquirer, they did do a front page article addressing diversion and they looked at my monitoring system and the urine screen and kind of compared it to national recommendations. They also interviewed the head of the American ... president of the American Pain Society. But one thing that they did do was interview a few of my patients that were taking OxyContin and the beneficial effects it had on them. It is archived in their website, it's the March 16 Cincinnati Enquirer, but they did actually address some of the patient issues and some of the benefit because their stories prompted me to e-mail them ... some pretty nasty e-mails about the effects of what they were reporting and they actually responded and responded pretty favorably which was nice. So that has been one ... at least just one newspaper that has covered it, in my opinion, a little bit more broadly than most.