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THE DRUG CZAR'S VISIT

The numbers are staggering: We're losing 82 Kentuckians a month to drug overdose, from the cities to rural areas in Appalachia.  Nearly 1,000 of our fellow Kentuckians died from drug overdoses in 2009, more than those killed in traffic crashes.  Last year, law enforcement responded to 1,100 meth lab sites across the state, up from 738 in 2009.  And Kentucky ranks in the top three of marijuana-producing states.

Too many of our children are experimenting with drugs.  Kentucky ranked 8th in the nation for abuse of prescription pain reliever drugs among 12- to 17-year-olds, and in Eastern Kentucky the average age when a child first gets high on prescription pills is 11.  Drug abuse persists as a serious problem in all 120 counties of the commonwealth.

But the numbers alone can't tell the whole story.  Drug addiction fuels crime, particularly theft, as abusers steal to support their habit.  Drugs not only hurt the people who abuse them, they rip families apart.  Parents who are addicted will neglect their children because all they care about is getting high.  And I've met too many families who have lost a child to drug abuse, and will never get to see their beloved son or daughter grow up.

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