Lt. Gov. Steve Pence addressed Hardin County residents at the Elizabethtown-Hardin County Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Elizabethtown Thursday. Pence said Kentucky is taking a new approach to combating illegal drug use. "We've got to get away from the mentality that we will incarcerate our way out of the drug problem," Pence said. Pence said not only that Kentucky could not afford to keep people behind bars, but also that treatment and rehabilitation provide a better solution to the problem. [continues 437 words]
Year after year, the Oldham County Board of Education is told the same thing: drug and alcohol use among school children is a growing problem. This year, officials are doing something about it. They have formed the Oldham County Task Force for substance abuse prevention in an effort to fight the problem. The group will meet today to discuss the substance abuse problem among Oldham County's sixth-through 12th-graders. The task force formed in response to the 2001 survey results done by Kentucky Incentives for Prevention, which were presented at the Oldham County school board meeting Monday night. [continues 636 words]
