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. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart