WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Combating our nation's substance abuse problem requires engaged citizens in every community -- such as those involved with Operation UNITE's efforts in Eastern Kentucky, President George Bush said Tuesday during a press conference. "All Americans have a responsibility to encourage people to turn away from the losing spiral of addiction and to make good choices in life. But the great thing about our country, and the reason I'm so optimistic, is there are thousands and thousands of people willing to take the lead in their own communities -- people who have seen a problem and said, we're going to do something about it, like this good woman right here from Eastern Kentucky," said Bush, pointing to UNITE President/CEO Karen Engle. [continues 457 words]
The Pike County Board of Education is drug testing more students more often, but there are still some problems with the policy. Vice-Chairman J.C. Chaney asked Board of Education members to revamp the district's random student drug-testing policy after one child, who is not in the random drug testing pool, was tested because officials suspected illegal drug use. The student, whose parents weren't notified by the Board of Education or the school, passed the test, Chaney said. [continues 568 words]
The Pike County School district is working on ways to keep students from falling by the wayside. Pike County Schools superintendent Roger Wagner has taken the district's theme, "Nothing But the Kids," to a higher level this month by implementing a drug task force. The task force aims to curb drug, tobacco and alcohol abuse problems in schools by educating educators, its members and community leaders about how to spot a student or family that has a problem. Several central office staff members, community, religious and business partners, students, parents, teachers, counselors, members of the media, law enforcement officials, UNITE partners, and family resource and youth services members are partnering to make the program a success. [continues 431 words]
More Pike County students will be randomly drug tested next year - and they could be tested more often. Until this week, a maximum of 20 percent of students could be drug tested in Pike County schools. Tuesday, Pike County Board of Education members changed the policy to a minimum of 20 percent. Eugene Sisco, with ASAP Consulting, asked the board to make the change in order to "broaden the pool" of students who can be tested and allow the district to maintain a grant that pays for the program. Sisco said he expects to complete a full analysis of this year's testing results within a couple of weeks. [continues 551 words]
PRESTONSBURG - After being fingerprinted and photographed, 87-year-old Dottie Neeley sat quietly in the local jail, imprisoned as much by the tubing from her oxygen tank as the concrete and steel surrounding her. The elderly woman who sometimes uses a wheelchair is among a growing number of senior citizens charged in a crackdown on the illegal trade of prescription drugs, a crime that authorities say is rampant in the mountains of central Appalachia. Floyd County jailer Roger Webb said seniors have a ready market for their prescription pills, especially painkillers, and some may be succumbing to the temptation of illegally selling their medications. "When a person is on Social Security, drawing $500 a month, and they can sell their pain pills for $10 apiece, they'll take half of them for themselves and sell the other half to pay their electric bills or buy groceries," Webb said. [continues 503 words]
An elementary school principal faces several drug-related charges after a 17-year-old juvenile was taken to Pikeville Medical Center early Saturday morning, according to documents at the Pike County Detention Center. Kyle Tackett, principal of G.F. Johnson Elementary School in Virgie, was arrested after Kentucky State Police Trooper Ivan Sewell responded to a possible overdose call at Tackett's residence at 848 Long Fork Road in Virgie. Pike County school board member Earl Thacker confirmed Tackett's employment at the school based on information in his school system handbook. [continues 110 words]
Drug use in Pike County is evolving, and the DARE program to keep kids off drugs is changing with it. The program, targeted at kids in fifth and sixth grades, has been revamped this year, said DARE officer Tolbert Ratliff, a deputy with the Pike County Sheriff's Office. "Until now, it's basically been stand and preach," he says of the old DARE program. "Now, the DARE officer is more of a facilitator." The idea, he said, is to start conversations with the kids - to lead discussions, and encourage them to ask questions. [continues 215 words]
Before the sun had peeked over the hills Friday morning, Pikeville Police Department officers were sweeping through the city rounding up five suspected drug dealers. This and other charges filed earlier in the week were the result of an 11-month investigation by the department. The people arrested are accused of being "street-level" dealers, kind of low on the totem pole in the marijuana and OxyContin business. While these and other arrests by the city and other law enforcement agencies are a good start, this county's drug problem isn't going to go away until we get the people bringing drugs into the area. Our streets and our children aren't going to be safe until those people are behind bars. That is not meant to demean last week's efforts, because every little bit helps. [continues 219 words]
"If it's a disease, let's treat it like a disease," said Dr. Gregory Lamar Jones, about the only disease the American Medical Association had to vote on to determine it as such. The AMA named alcoholism as a disease in 1956 after deliberating and voting on the issue. Since then, the disease has been linked to other substances and has emerged in all socio-economic, racial, ethnic and age groups. Today it is known in the treatment world as addiction. [continues 548 words]
More and more drug addicts in the state are crossing the Kentucky border to find help, and it's not because there's a lack of assistance here. In West Virginia, methadone clinics, where addicts hooked on OxyContin and other drugs get doses of methadone to help curb the addiction of other drugs, do not test for marijuana. In Kentucky, however, those in the clinics must be tested. The reason is West Virginia doesn't have any state regulations on testing for other drugs, while Kentucky's laws mandate that patients be tested for marijuana, benzodiazepines, amphetamines and narcotics once a week for 26 weeks and then once a month after that. [continues 204 words]
Eastern Kentucky has been declared the painkiller capital of the nation. As if that weren't bad enough, Pike County itself was named number three on the list of places receiving the most narcotics per capita from 1998 to 2001. These figures were part of an in-depth investigation published Sunday by the Lexington Herald-Leader into the prescription pill crisis sweeping this region. According to the data, compiled from federal Drug Enforcement Administration records, nearly a ton of narcotics were shipped into mountain counties during the four-year period. Narcotics such as OxyContin and Vicodin flood our cities and towns at much higher rates than Los Angeles, Detroit and Miami. [continues 355 words]
Ponder this scenario. An employee of a liquor store, as time goes on, develops a dependency on alcohol. To feed that habit, that employee soon begins stealing alcohol from the business and taking it home largely for his own use. At some point, the employee - most likely under the influence of alcohol - is driving a friend around when he crashes his car, injuring the passenger and getting himself charged in connection with the accident after police find alcohol in the vehicle. About a year later, the passenger files suit not only against the driver of the vehicle for damages in return for his injuries, but also the owners of the liquor store the man worked at, alleging their failure to keep track of the missing inventory led to the employee's addiction and the accident. Sounds kind of illogical, right? [continues 458 words]
We were comforted to see that each state trooper in Pike County will adopt a school and patrol it, fully armed and ready to fight all that crime. We assume the cop who thought that up will benefit from being around some grade school to finish learning some things that the inventor of such a daffy scheme never picked up in the first place. This may come as a surprise to those scared to death of school children, but the only crimes going on at school are committed by the certified personnel. [continues 379 words]
Two separate marijuana busts conducted Friday by the Pike County Sheriff's De-partment resulted in the confiscation of more than 1,400 plants, officials say. Sheriff Charles "Fuzzy" Keesee said the larger haul originated with an investigation of a four-wheeler that had been parked along a rural county road. Keesee said when deputies arrived at the location where the ATV was parked, a juvenile came down out of the hills. Dep-uties detected "a strong smell of marijuana" on the teen-ager, Keesee said, and subsequently found a joint in the juvenile's possession. When deputies drove the juvenile to his residence - at Road Creek Road near Elk-horn City - they again detected a strong smell of marijuana, this time coming from inside the teen's mobile home. Once inside, deputies discovered a "sophisticated" indoor growing operation with about 1,200 marijuana plants in various stages of growth. More plants were confiscated outside the mobile home and in a nearby storage building, along with related growing materials - from lights and fertilizer to scales and books on how to grow marijuana. Bert Hatfield, director of the sheriff's department's Drug Task Force, said the plants had an estimated street value of about $180,000. Deputies later arrested the teen's mother, Jeanette Lindeman, 39, and another occupant of the mobile home, Clifton Machniak, 41. Both were charged with cultivating and trafficking in marijuana and lodged in the Pike County Detention Center. "This is an ongoing battle," Keesee said yesterday. "Our goal is to eradicate Pike County of this drug problem. I hope we reach that goal someday." Hatfield echoed the sheriff's diligence. [continues 115 words]
Deadly Dilemma Hundreds of Eastern Kentuckians have followed a thin white line to destruction and death with OxyContin. And Pike County from many accounts is one of the state's hotbeds of illegal use and abuse of the powerful painkiller, as well as the place some officials say features the highest number of overdose deaths attached to it. Despite that unsavory distinction, the county still appears on the outside looking in at effective ways to combat the synthetic opiate's increasing grip on the region's culture of illicit drug abuse. [continues 390 words]
