Posted 7/9/2003 5:29 PM Updated 7/9/2003 6:23 PM
W.Va. woman charged with trying to sell 2-year-old son to buy OxyContin
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A mother has been charged with trying to sell her toddler son for $500 so she could buy a stash of the addictive painkiller OxyContin.
Brianna Marie Burns, 23, could get up to five years in prison if convicted.
Burns' grandmother contacted authorities after Burns allegedly offered to sell her the 2-year-old child. An undercover officer wired the grandmother and provided her with $500 for the exchange, according to police documents.
Burns was arrested Monday after receiving the money and signing custody of the child over to her grandmother. She was being held on $102,500 bond.
Child Protective Services has placed the child with another family member.
OxyContin is a prescription painkiller often given to cancer patients. If chewed, snorted or injected, it produces a quick and potentially lethal high. The drug has been linked to more than 100 deaths.
The sale of a child was a misdemeanor in West Virginia until 1994, one year after a Charleston woman was convicted of trying to sell her 1-month-old baby to undercover officers for $1,400 so she could buy a mobile home. That led the state to change the law, making the crime a felony.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...09-drugs_x.htm
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