Pubdate: Sat, 23 Nov 2002
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2002 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Lee Mueller

VIVID TALES FROM E. KENTUCKY PROMPT CALL FOR LEGISLATION

PAINTSVILLE - Six hours of horror stories and chilling statistics on 
Kentucky's drug problems moved Gov. Paul Patton yesterday to call for new 
steps to stop prescription-drug abuse -- including targeting physicians for 
tougher enforcement.

Patton told state Justice Secretary Ishmon Burks to develop a legislative 
proposal for the General Assembly next year aimed at toughening Kentucky's 
prescription drug laws.

"We need to put the real criminals who are grossly profiting from these 
drugs ... under the jail," Patton said. "Some of them have got to be 
physicians."

Patton's recommendation came after a daylong meeting in Paintsville of the 
Kentucky Appalachian Commission, which focused on the region's drug problems.

Patton stressed that the problems are not exclusive to the mountains, but 
most speakers yesterday focused on the region.

"I'm not sure there's a greater problem in Eastern Kentucky than the abuse 
of prescription drugs," said Mike Duncan, director of special 
investigations for the attorney general's office.

Drug arrests have at least doubled in Kentucky since 1995, officials said, 
and the state leads the nation in the number of pharmacies robbed for drugs.

The governor's panel heard the Rev. Donnie Coots, a Perry County minister, 
describe the death last summer of his 22-year-old son from a drug overdose. 
Harlan County Sheriff Steve Duff reported a line of patients, two blocks 
long, waiting to see a local doctor who gave a pain-pill prescription to a 
uniformed deputy without examining him.

Duff said his deputies found families that sold all their furniture to buy 
drugs. The only meals their children ate were at school, he said.

"It's like a plague that's come in on us," Duff said, "and it's eating our 
people alive."

Other speakers urged prolonged treatment for addicts and others suggested 
law-enforcement efforts should focus on drug traffickers, not users who 
sometimes are jailed on charges of possessing a controlled substance.

Patton said he was not certain what should be done to addicts who steal in 
order to obtain money for drugs.

Trafficking is equally difficult to control, said Tim Hazlette, state 
police deputy commissioner. "We've found that for every person you arrest, 
there are three waiting to take their place because it's so lucrative."

Duncan, the attorney general's investigator, praised KASPER, a statewide 
computer network that allows law-enforcement officials to track drug 
prescriptions in Kentucky, but he said it has not stopped the flow of pills 
to drug dealers.

"The bottom line is we've got some bad docs," Duncan said. He cited the 
case of an unnamed physician who wrote prescriptions to 100 patients a day, 
spending about 2 or 3 minutes with each without giving them a physical exam.

Burks said the state's DARE program is a good first step toward alerting 
students to the dangers of drugs -- though some studies have indicated it 
has no effect on reducing a teen's likelihood of abusing drugs.

Two senior class officers at Paintsville High School said students tune out 
drug-awareness programs by the time they reach high school. They 
recommended directing the programs at 5th and 6th graders.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart