Republican gubernatorial candidate Ernie Fletcher unveiled a three-part approach to battling the growing Kentucky drug problem Friday during a brief stop at the Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport. A crowd of 40 people gathered in the airport lobby where Fletcher and running mate Steve Pence discussed the devastating impact of methamphetamine in western Kentucky while offering to improve the state's drug education, enforcement and rehabilitation efforts. Funds to pay for the initiative would likely surface after a reorganization of state spending and through federal grants, and without creating a larger bureaucracy, Fletcher said. [continues 455 words]
WHITESBURG -- As a nurse in eastern Kentucky, Diane Watts is all too familiar with the ear-piercing screams of drug addicts suffering through withdrawal. Comforting them through the pain and tremors has become a regular part of her job in the obstetrics unit at Whitesburg Appalachian Regional Hospital. The number of infants born addicted to prescription drugs like OxyContin and methadone has sharply increased over the past year. In the newest twist to the prescription drug epidemic in the mountain region, hospitals have found themselves doubling as detox centers for babies hooked on powerful narcotics. [continues 505 words]
The debate over punishment versus treatment for drug offenders, from an ideological perspective, is one that has strong arguments on both sides of the issue. But study after study show that, without adequate treatment, all the enforcement in the world isn't going to alleviate the growing drug problem. That's bad news for Owensboro, because in terms of treatment options, this community is lacking. That was the assessment of an assistant U.S. attorney, who in the midst of an all-out assault on meth two years ago, said treatment options were limited, and those available weren't very successful. [continues 398 words]
Anti-Drug Program Puts More Emphasis on Decision-Making The centerpiece for the Kentucky D.A.R.E. Association's annual in-service training this week at the Executive Inn Rivermont is the first change in the D.A.R.E. curriculum since 1994. "The major change is the focus is now on decision-making skills," said Bruce Olin, the state D.A.R.E. coordinator and a Kentucky State Police trooper. "You teach a child to make good decisions and give them a process to follow. It's a learned trait." [continues 367 words]
Osborne: 'Need Is Here' for Treatment Proposal Daviess County Jailer David Osborne is hoping to turn a vacant jail building into an intensive substance abuse program for county inmates. Momentum appears to be growing, he says. Osborne is gathering feedback and support for the proposed project. Support has already arrived from the jail's psychiatrist, Community Solutions for Substance Abuse, representatives of the local Kentucky Agency for Substance Abuse Policy (Ky-ASAP) and Gary Hall, senior director of the regional prevention center. [continues 830 words]
Residents Urge Drug Task Force During five years as the Daviess County Sheriff's Department's lone narcotics investigator, Detective Sgt. Jim Acquisto has had a front row seat as the county's methamphetamine presence has escalated from a growing problem into a widespread epidemic. Acquisto has seen children inside a home filled with meth fumes, men arrested up to three times for making meth, a pregnant woman using the drug and another woman, in the grip of a powerful addiction, who opted to put her child up for adoption rather than try to rehabilitate, he said. [continues 610 words]
A group of residents concerned about police manpower shortages and the proliferation of drugs unveiled a presentation Thursday before Daviess Fiscal Court with hopes of garnering support for a drug task force among city and county law enforcement. A drug task force would focus exclusively on drugs throughout Daviess County, allowing the officers to gather intelligence, work with an assigned prosecutor and have access to a lab technician to eliminate the occasional one-year backlog of evidence analysis, according to the presentation. [continues 492 words]
Since Steve Pence is a last minute addition to the GOP ticket, folks around here haven't seen much of him in the campaign for lieutenant governor. However, he was in town on Monday speaking to a crowd of jailers and deputies at the Kentucky Jailers Association conference. That appearance unfortunately told us a lot about him, and about the deceptive campaign we're likely to see in the fall. Pence's speech included an ample share of political rhetoric, and that's to be expected. But in the middle of the plentiful promises and even more plentiful barbs there were a few outrageous untruths -- that's something I don't think you should have to tolerate as a voter, and a record I feel I need to correct as your state senator. [continues 463 words]
Prosecutors and police working to fight the proliferation of methamphetamine fear that a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling on Thursday could greatly complicate their efforts to arrest and punish makers of the drug. The 4-3 ruling said that to be charged with manufacturing meth, someone must have all the necessary equipment or ingredients. A defendant possessing some but not all the equipment or chemicals could be prosecuted for criminal attempt, the court said. Assistant Daviess County Commonwealth's Attorney Ken Nall had not yet read the court's ruling Thursday, but he said the ramifications would likely be felt throughout western Kentucky. [continues 601 words]
Agency Tackling Drug, Alcohol Issues After many months of planning, Community Solutions for Substance Abuse has received its first grant to tackle drug and alcohol issues in the community. The organization recently received $14,850 to be allocated among four area agencies and one school system to provide prevention services to youths. "Our mission is to work with others who are implementing programs and have needs," said Debbie Zuerner Johnson, executive director of the organization since May 12. "We want to be the vehicle to help secure dollars to put back into this community, whether it's for prevention, intervention or treatment of substance abuse." [continues 403 words]
Daviess, McCracken, Warren see increasing demands Sheriff's departments throughout western Kentucky say they juggle the demands of urban sprawl, methamphetamine and homeland security concerns with patrol staffs that have remained largely unchanged during the past 10 years. Daviess, McCracken and Warren county sheriff's departments could double the size of their road patrols and still fall below the recommended national averages of two officers per 1,000 residents. At full strength, the Daviess County Sheriff's Department will have a patrol force of 21 officers who respond to crashes and calls for help. Currently, the department has 19 officers and is awaiting two new recruits who will graduate from the police academy this month. [continues 934 words]
GREENVILLE -- For Steve Hendrix, the trip to Muhlenberg County's Drug Court started at age 16 with marijuana and alcohol. About 1999, Hendrix started using methamphetamine. "It was a weekend thing," the 37-year-old Greenville resident said. It became a twice-a-week thing and eventually a daily habit that left him with little motivation to get out of bed, he said. "Then it just eats you up," Hendrix said Friday after a ceremony honoring him and three other men as the first graduating class of the drug court. [continues 549 words]
Doctors Face Drug Charges In Appalachia PIKEVILLE -- A growing list of doctors who were once welcomed with open arms into medically underserved Appalachia have been taken away in handcuffs. In eastern Kentucky alone, seven small-town doctors are in prison or on their way there for illegally supplying drug addicts with prescriptions for powerful narcotics such as OxyContin. At least six others have been rounded up in the hills of West Virginia, Virginia and southern Ohio. Advocates for the mountain region say the loss of so many doctors ordinarily would have left a void. In these cases, they say, the departures can only improve medical care. [continues 944 words]
Newman Man Battling Rise in Drug Activity A resident of the quiet rural community of Newman posted signs along his street this week that are intended to send an unmistakable message to residents and visitors. Six white signs with red lettering are posted along Steamboat Road and read: "Attention meth users. We will take our community back. Leave while you have the chance!" The signs were posted Tuesday on telephone poles and a tree by resident Mike Hardesty, who lives with his wife and two children, ages 11 and 16, on the same property that his father once owned. Hardesty said he wants his children and others along the street to feel as safe as he did while growing up. [continues 404 words]
Numerous studies have been compiled in recent years measuring alcohol and drug use among youths at both the national and state levels. The findings have been consistent -- teenagers are using, or at least experimenting with, drugs and alcohol at alarming rates. The trouble with such studies, however, is that they only represent a broad overview of the problem. Understanding that a certain percentage of teenagers across the state, or even the country, have tried alcohol or drugs is important, but it can't be assumed that that same percentage holds true for every area. [continues 424 words]
LEXINGTON -- The drug war is one of the most pressing issues facing the next attorney general, five candidates agreed Thursday. "The No. 1 issue in America domestically ... is the drug culture," Chris Gorman, one of the Democratic candidates, said at a forum. Gorman, running to regain an office he held from 1992 to 1996, said he would create a "drug squad" in the attorney general's office to concentrate on drug cases. He said it would be akin to the office's "death squad," a group of assistant attorneys general who specialize in capital punishment cases. [continues 157 words]
Students moving up to high school are more likely to use drugs and alcohol, according to a survey of local students released Wednesday. Small percentages of students in the sixth and eighth grades have used marijuana, alcohol and tobacco, but the numbers spike when they reach the 10th grade. Reasons vary. But local officials studying the problem say students in the ninth grade are going through a transition period, including puberty and leaving their middle schools to attend the larger high schools. [continues 655 words]
Most parents are at least somewhat familiar with the statistics regarding teens and drug and alcohol abuse. But there is a difference between parents knowing the facts and believing those facts could apply to their own children. "Nobody wants to believe their child is on drugs or that their drinking is a problem," said Tina Wedding, education committee chairwoman for Community Solutions for Substance Abuse. Saturday afternoon, Community Solutions held its first "Family Awareness Fair" at Mount St. Joseph, to help educate residents about substance abuse and connect them with treatment and support services. [continues 378 words]
"The devil's weed" will join the fight against "angel dust." But this time, the devil's the good guy. Large Scale Biology Corp., a California firm with biomanufacturing facilities in Owensboro, has signed an agreement with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock to use Daviess County tobacco to produce a commercial grade intervention therapy for phencyclidine. Phencyclidine is better known as "angel dust" or PCP. Opponents once labeled tobacco "the devil's weed." Michael Owens, director of the Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Studies at the Arkansas university, said Large Scale had been selected to produce a potentially therapeutic antibody for PCP. [continues 410 words]
GREENVILLE -- A community health council/task force will concentrate on finding funding for three of the top five needs identified by Muhlenberg County residents in a recent survey. More than a fourth -- 467 -- of the 1,652 respondents in a recent survey said anti-drug efforts are the county's biggest need. Also cited was a need for more school nurses and a resource coordinator. But the council won't concentrate on finding money for two of the top five vote-getters -- building a wellness/fitness center and putting defibrillators in schools -- said council member Vicki Yonts. [continues 476 words]
