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. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin