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TMCNet: Forum tackles troubles of drug abuse [The Daily Independent, Ashland, Ky.]

[April 07, 2009]

Forum tackles troubles of drug abuse [The Daily Independent, Ashland, Ky.]

(Daily Independent (Ashland, KY) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Apr. 7--GRAYSON -- While most area residents have heard that the abuse of prescription drugs has reached epidemic proportions in northeastern Kentucky, those attending Monday's Key Leader Forum on Prescription Diversion and Abuse received a dose of just what impact that abuse has on this region from speakers representing law enforcement, organized labor, education and the judiciary.


And they heard from LeAlan Miller of Grayson, who said that for seven years his abuse of prescription drugs "totally controlled my life." The forum was sponsored by the Carter County Drug Task Force as "another piece in the puzzle" toward solving the drug problem in Carter County, said Becky Walker, a member of the task force's executive committee.

"My first thought of every day was to find a way to get my pills," Miller told those attending the luncheon at Grayson Community Center, including U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis. "It was never hard for me to find the pills I needed. If you want them, they are out there." Miller said he wasn't brought up to be someone who abused drugs. "I have great parents who have been very supportive of me. I was very involved in my church. I don't blame anyone but myself. I just started hanging around with the wrong people and got hooked." Miller said he has been drug-free for three years. He credits a drug treatment program operated by a Cincinnati church for helping him overcome his addiction. "Jesus Christ set me free. For that I am eternally grateful." Some of his friends were not so lucky, Miller said. "I have had 14 of my friends die from prescription drug overdoses," he said. "I saw first-hand how drugs had killed them and would kill me if I didn't stop abusing them." Jon Marshall heads a unit of the Kentucky State Police that deals exclusively with prescription drug diversion and abuse, defined as using prescription medication in a way in which they are not prescribed. In his 13 years with the KSP's drug enforcement program, Marshall said the abuse of prescription drugs has climbed by 150 percent. Among those between the ages of 12 and 17, it is up by 212 percent.

At least in this region, the illegal use of prescription drugs exceeds all other types of illegal drug use combined. "You can talk all you want about cocaine and heroin abuse, but prescription drug abuse is a far, far greater problem," he said.

There is a direct link between the abuse of prescription drugs in northeastern Kentucky and the easy accessibility to pain medication in Florida, Marshall said. Because Florida has limited regulation of pain clinics, people from northeastern Kentucky who are addicted to pain medication flock to Florida to buy their pain pills, the KSP officer said.

Marshall said the number of pain clinics in Broward County, Fla., has increased from 31 in 2003 to 167 today. While a legitimate pain doctor told him that he typically writes about a dozen prescriptions for pain medication a day, Marshall said pain clinics in Florida write between 140 and 150 prescriptions a day.

Donald Damron, principal of East Carter High School, said the vast majority of students at his high school are good kids who do not abuse drugs or alcohol. However, there are a few who do, "and even if you have just a handful of students abusing drugs, then you have a big drug problem." However, Damron said he believes current high school students have witnessed the abuse of prescription drugs and have seen the impact it has had on the lives of others. "As a result, I think we are beginning to see a social stigma resulting from prescription drug abuse," the principal said.

Terry Sexton of Boilermakers Local 105 said union leaders are well aware of the growing problems their workers are having with prescription drug abuse.

"First of all, it's a matter of safety," Sexton said. "The jobs are dangerous by nature, and they become even more dangerous if any of your co-workers are high on drugs." Second, union members addicted to prescription drugs have a high rate of absenteeism, Sexton said.

The region's drug problem also is impacting the ability to attract new employees, Sexton said. Of the 28 who recently were accepted into a union apprenticeship program, 14 were kicked out after testing positive for drug use.

Addicts also spend their wages on pills. "They lose interest in what they used to enjoy doing," Sexton said. "They don't play golf or do any of the things they used to do." Addicts also steal to feed their habits, Sexton said, adding that the theft of tools and building materials at construction sites is at an all-time high.

Sexton said the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and the recent floods in North Dakota are all "acts of God." "But the abuse of prescription drugs in a man-made problem that only we can solve," Sexton said. "We have opened the floodgates that have caused this problem. We have to find a way to close them." Kristi Gossett, family court judge for Carter, Elliott and Morgan counties, said most of her first-hand knowledge of prescription drug abuse comes from the cases she hears involving abuse or neglect of children.

Of the 279 cases involving child abuse and neglect she heard in 2008, 246 involved the abuse of prescription drugs by parents. Of the 45 cases heard so far in 2009, 43 involve the abuse of prescription drugs.

She first hears many of these cases when a mother gives birth to an infant who is addicted to drugs, Gossett said. Parents of older children are so addicted to drugs they are unable to provide the most basic of care to their children.

"These children receive little if any supervision," she said. "They are not properly fed or clothed or kept clean. They are being raised without adult supervision." Pam Kouns, a member of the executive committee of the Carter County Drug Task Force, sought the support of Davis for a national program to track the flow of prescription drugs, a Drug Enforcement Agency office in northeastern Kentucky, and a national summit or prescription drug diversion and abuse.

Davis said he supported "100 percent" a national coordinating program on prescription drug use, agreeing that it would be a vast improvement over each state having its own program and never talking to each other. The establishment of a DEA office in eastern Kentucky likely would require a coordinated effort involving the DEA, the governor and the state's congressional delegation.

Davis also supported a national summit on prescription drug abuse, as long as it did not evolve into another example of "government overreach." Just like most problems, it is local efforts like the Carter County Drug Task Force that will lead to the most effective solutions to the abuse of prescription drugs, Davis said.

JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2649.

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