In reaction to an underage drinking scandal that police said included a school board member, two teachers and high school students, the Newport school board took steps Wednesday to tighten the district's drug and alcohol policies. At the recommendation of Superintendent Michael Brandt, the board authorized him to: Research drug-testing policies in other districts. Form a task force to study a random drug-testing policy for students. Create a code of conduct for students who want to participate in sports and other extra-curricular activities. [continues 506 words]
Erlanger Board Approves Project Transitions Inc. has cleared a major hurdle in its quest to build a residential drug/alcohol rehabilitation center in Erlanger. The Erlanger Board of Adjustment Monday night granted the Covington non-profit a permit to build the 100-bed facility on Pleasure Isle Drive. Transitions Executive Director Mac McArthur said Transitions planned today to close the deal to buy the property, which is just off Madison Pike. "I'm relieved. I'm delighted that this part of the struggle is over," he said Monday night. [continues 803 words]
It's a rare act of courage when children turn their drug-using parents in to police, says an expert on children from troubled homes. "It takes a lot of guts because a child really doesn't know what is going to happen," said Connie Freking, youth service department director for the Brighton Center, a multi-program social service agency headquartered in Newport. "It also takes a lot of love. I don't think a child's first thought is that the parents may go to jail. The first thought is, 'They need help. We need help. I need help.' In the long run, they're looking out for their family's best interest." [continues 510 words]
Drug-rehab group makes bid for new unit In the back of the crowded Covington City Commission chambers, Jackie Keach held up a sign that memorialized her late son, Josh Motz. The former Covington resident died in 2004. He was addicted to OxyContin and heroin, his mother said. "I would have been better off with cancer," the sign read. "I needed treatment, not hate." Keach, of Cincinnati, was supporting Transitions Inc.'s plan to build a residential drug treatment facility for 100 men off Donaldson Avenue in Covington. [continues 565 words]
Similar Legislation Worked In 1 state FRANKFORT - Kentucky law enforcement officials hope new legislation requiring people to show picture IDs and sign their names when buying medication containing pseudoephedrine will become a useful instrument in their arsenal against methamphetamine. "Without controlling pseudoephedrine, it's going to be really hard to get our arms around the meth problem," said David James, head of the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation - an arm of the attorney general's office. "Now that we have some controls on the pseudoephedrine, it will help law enforcement across the state better protect the citizens." [continues 354 words]
California's medical-marijuana law would seem a classic case of states' rights. It was approved by the voters at large in a ballot initiative and as a law by the state legislature. The commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution would seem not to apply because the product was grown entirely in the state, was never bought and sold and never crossed state lines. And the marijuana was made available to qualified patients by state-regulated doctor's prescription. Nine other states, from Maine to Hawaii, have similar laws, so this is hardly an ill-considered proposition. [continues 224 words]
What makes NIMBY ("Not In My Back Yard") disputes so hard to mediate is that typically there are sincere, well-meaning people on both sides. That was certainly the case when Transitions Inc. recently proposed putting a long-term residential drug treatment facility for about 100 men in the Latonia neighborhood of Covington. Transitions included the county-owned property on its application to state officials who are trying to figure out where to place 10 such facilities as part of Gov. Ernie Fletcher's Recovery Kentucky initiative. [continues 371 words]
Review Process Applications for centers must be reviewed by a panel of representatives from the Kentucky Housing Corp., the Corrections Cabinet and the Governor's Office for Local Development. The panel will recommend choices to the governor. Several other agencies plan to apply for the Recovery Kentucky grants to build treatment centers for substance abusers. Among local groups: Brighton Center, one of Northern Kentucky's largest social service agencies, coupled with Boone County to apply to build a recovery center on property owned by Gateway Community Technical College off Sam Neace Drive in Boone County. The center would serve women. [continues 1070 words]
Proposal to Be Outlined Sunday Transitions Inc. will sponsor a presentation Sunday on the residential recovery center it hopes to build and operate in Latonia for 100 male drug addicts. The recovery center would be modeled on the Healing Place in Louisville, which has been offering detoxification, residential and continuing care for men and women for 15 years. Sunday's session will include a short video on the Healing Place with stories of people who have recovered there, according to Mac McArthur, executive director of Transitions. It will run from 2 to 4 p.m. at Latonia Baptist Church on Church Street. [continues 353 words]
Mac McArthur is about to mail a 55-page document he hopes saves the lives of hundreds of Northern Kentuckians. The document is an application. McArthur is director of Transitions Inc., a substance abuse center that is partnering with the Kenton County Fiscal Court to try to persuade the state to build a million-dollar recovery center in Kenton County for drug addicts and alcoholics who are homeless or in danger of becoming so. The Fletcher Administration plans to build 10 such centers around the state, at least one in each Congressional district. But the Fourth District is a big district geographically; we think a center needs to be built in the three-county area. [continues 454 words]
America's most famous felon, Martha Stewart, has a lot ahead of her now that she's out of jail -- getting her company back into the black, launching two TV shows and re-establishing herself as the credible voice of domestic perfection. Her five months in a minimum-security women's prison was hardly "The Shawshank Redemption," but during that time she became a convert to the cause of prison and sentencing reform, according to Laurie Cohen of The Wall Street Journal, who corresponded with Stewart during her time in prison. [continues 155 words]
Last week on these pages we published a thoughtful guest column by Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker, who expressed concern over the intimidation of witnesses in criminal trials and praised the bravery of those who had testified in recent cases. Guess what happened Monday night? A man who had testified earlier that day in the murder trial of an alleged drug dealer was shot in the head. He died Tuesday, Cincinnati's 14th homicide victim of the year. Police cautioned that it would be a mistake to automatically assume that Jose Vazquez's testimony and his shooting several hours later in Walnut Hills were linked. And it bears noting that the man he testified against, Jonathan White, was in custody at the Hamilton County Justice Center when Vazquez was shot. [continues 424 words]
Kentucky could soon join Indiana and Oklahoma as states that have laws restricting the sale of over-the-counter cold tablets used to make methamphetamine. Senate Bill 63 was approved by a Senate committee Monday and could go before the full Senate in the next week, co-sponsor Sen. Tom Jensen said Monday. The bill would require drugs that contain pseudoephedrine to be dispensed by pharmacists, who would have to keep records of such transactions. The measure would also limit the amount of the drug the consumers could purchase and impose stiffer penalties for meth crimes. [continues 437 words]
Local law enforcement's battle against the pervasive, but often untracked crimes involving prescription drugs got a big boost recently from new prescription-tracking legislation and pharmaceutical diversion investigative squads in Northern Kentucky and southwest Ohio. Officials say the developments are key to stemming the growing illegal trade and abuse of prescription drugs, which the White House Office of Drug Control Policy says are second only to marijuana in their rate of abuse nationally. In Northern Kentucky, efforts to increase the ranks of those investigating so-called "pharmaceutical diversion" crimes were strengthened by the inception of the area's only Pharmaceutical Diversion Unit at the Boone County Sheriff's Department in July. The two detectives assigned to the team received special training last summer at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. though both have accumulated substantial experience in investigating such crimes in the past. [continues 742 words]
Gov. Ernie Fletcher traveled the state Monday to announce a $9.5 million plan to establish 10 recovery centers to treat drug addicts. It's a worthwhile campaign, but we hope the $9.5 million is just a start. An epidemic of drugs is sweeping this state, and not just in the big cities like Louisville and Lexington. Meth labs are popping up all over Western Kentucky, Oxy Contin abuse is paralyzing Eastern Kentucky and here in Northern Kentucky we've suffered the toll of heroin and other drugs. [continues 439 words]
A local doctor investigated for his prescription-writing practices has settled a forfeiture case brought against him by the federal government. Dr. Ghassan Haj-Hamed's attorney, Bob Carran, said he hopes the settlement will end any questions about the doctor's practice. The government sued the doctor in September 2002, saying his Riverside Medical Clinics and Urgent Care Centers were connected with illegal drug transactions. The settlement agreed on earlier this month calls for the doctor to surrender the properties at (Address omitted), plus $17,325 and two Mercedes Benz automobiles. But the government agreed to give up claims to three properties: (Addresses omitted) [continues 334 words]
Athletes at Walton-Verona High School had a new test to pass last month before they donned the Bearcats uniform and took the court. It had nothing to do with math, with history or with academics at all. The test involved urinating in a cup -- and having it tested for illegal drugs. At any point during the season, they might have to do it again. The test is a reaction to annual student drug and alcohol surveys whose numbers seemed to hold steady no matter what the school did, said Superintendent Bill Boyle. "We've done all the 'just say no' stuff we can do and haven't seen an impact," he said. "We knew we had to do more." [continues 1070 words]
Forcing drug tests on students is ineffective, invasive, and can make existing school drug problems worse. The Walton-Verona school board recently approved a random, suspicionless drug testing program for all student athletes. Advocates of such programs claim that they give young people an excuse to say "no" to drugs. But randomly testing those who participate in after-school sports simply gives students who have used or are thinking about using drugs an excuse to say "no" to trying out for teams. [continues 397 words]
Robert Lawson was the chief architect of the 1975 overhaul of Kentucky's criminal code. He's an authority on the rules that govern criminal proceedings in the commonwealth. As a University of Kentucky law school professor, he trained many of the attorneys who now serve as members of the Kentucky General Assembly. And he is not known as a bleeding heart liberal. So when Lawson began circulating private copies of a 72-page report which argues that Kentucky is incarcerating too many inmates for too long, policy-makers in the state began to sit up and take notice. "If they don't listen to him, they are not going to listen to anybody,'' Kentucky Parole Board Chairman John Coy told the Louisville Courier-Journal, in a story picked up by the Associated Press. [continues 454 words]
The Walton-Verona school board approved this week a drug-testing program for student athletes. The testing will affect about 280 students, or more than half of the student body of Walton-Verona High School. High school Principal Mark Krummen said he had worked about 10 months on the testing proposal and hasn't received any negative comments from parents or students. The testing likely will start in a couple of weeks. School officials don't believe a large number of students use drugs, but the perception among students is that drug use is prevalent, Krummen said. A drug-testing policy will help some students who may be tempted otherwise, he said. The school will test athletes in grades 9-12 once they make a team and then randomly afterward. [continues 79 words]
