Pubdate: Thu, 22 Jan 2004
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2004 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Bill Estep
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/steve+pence

FEDERALLY FUNDED PROGRAM COVERS 68 COUNTIES

A large anti-drug program in Appalachian Kentucky will play a
significant role in a statewide plan being developed by Lt. Gov. Steve
Pence to fight drugs, state and federal officials said yesterday.

Pence said the Appalachia High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA)
can bring several benefits to the administration's drug-control plan,
including significant resources, a structure to promote connections
between police agencies and knowledge from beyond Kentucky's borders,
which is important because drug pipelines cross state lines.

The Appalachia HIDTA is a federally funded program designed to bring
together federal, state and local police in task forces to investigate
marijuana cultivation and drug trafficking. Its headquarters is in
London and covers 68 counties in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

U.S. Attorney Gregory F. Van Tatenhove, Appalachia HIDTA board
chairman, said efforts by Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration to
develop a comprehensive plan to reduce drug abuse makes sense because
no one agency can tackle the problem alone.

"We've got to be part of a team that's looking at a comprehensive
approach to the problem," Van Tatenhove said.

Pence and Van Tatenhove spoke yesterday at the Appalachia HIDTA's
annual conference in Lexington.

Van Tatenhove said that for the first time in recent memory,
law-enforcement and other agencies in Kentucky have the "institutional
will" to work out a comprehensive plan for fighting drugs.

The administration's plan is not finished, but will focus on reducing
demand for illegal drugs; law enforcement; and expanding drug
treatment for addicts.

Pence said the plan will seek to make wider use of drug courts, expand
the availability of drug treatment and reduce the number of
non-violent offenders in state prisons. Treating people who have
substance-abuse addictions is far cheaper than sending them to prison,
Pence said.

The Appalachia HIDTA, established in 1998, has an annual budget of $6
million.

A federal review of the program in 2002 found that the program had
fallen short on the key goal of bringing federal, state and local
police together in a unified attack on drug traffickers. Among the
concerns identified was that police agencies in the program had not
cooperated as they should and that local police had seen little money.

Van Tatenhove said yesterday that in the past, many police agencies
saw HIDTA as a funding source and used money from the program for good
work, but without the strategic planning needed to make the whole more
than the sum of its parts.

Van Tatenhove said the Appalachia HIDTA board has made a number of
changes to make the program more effective, including changing its
internal governing structure and rewriting the memorandum of
understanding under which the program operates.

The program has also changed procedures so that no participating
agency can get funding without being part of a task force or specific
initiative, a change designed to make sure agencies are accountable
and working as part of an overall strategy.

Also, the Appalachia HIDTA has done more to involve local police in
investigations. Two years ago, no local police officers were getting
funding as part of a task force under the program; now more than 60
are, Van Tatenhove said.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin