Drug Abuse

In observance of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, there will be a community forum at noon on Thursday on the steps of the Lincoln County Courthouse to discuss substance abuse. The forum will feature local judges, mental health providers and members of the community to address the issue of substance abuse and the lack of access to treatment, as well as possible solutions to this growing problem. Forum participants will discuss what can be done to improve the local situation, acting in conjunction with the national Recovery Month theme of "Join the Voices of Recovery - Healing Lives, Families and Communities.

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series looking at crime in Nicholasville. Next week, the Journal will look at violent crimes, crimes against property and false alarms calls. Crime statistics in the city of Nicholasville haven't changed much in recent years, and police officials credit that fact to enforcement and education. "We haven't seen any trends develop in the last year or so ... things have remained fairly constant," police department spokesperson Officer Scott Harvey said.

Battling the drug problem in Clark County requires a broad community approach that extends beyond local schools, Superintendent Elaine Farris said during a meeting Monday on community goals. "I'm just making the assumption that you probably have less of the drug issue in a school building because of the adult supervision, than you would on the weekends when the kids are out of school and there is no adult supervision," she said. The issue of drugs was the most salient topic discussed among 12 others listed in the 2009 Community Action Plan.

By Dan Mongiardo, M.D. Florida is a great place to visit and vacation: just ask the thousands of Kentuckians who travel there each year to enjoy the white sand beaches and ocean views. But for some Kentuckians, heading south has taken on a completely different-and dangerous-meaning. It's no secret that in some areas of Kentucky the appetite for prescription drugs has become insatiable: In Appalachia alone, the rate of prescription drug abuse is twice the national average, doubling between 2000 and 2004.

Editor's note: This is the second of a three-week series looking at crime trends in Nicholasville. Next week: traffic offenses and false alarms While city officials characterize Nicholasville's crime rate as low, like many other communities, it too has its fair share of drug-related crimes. But Nicholasville's main drug problem isn't the more commonly known drugs such as cocaine and marijuana. This area's biggest drug problem, according to Nicholasville police Sgt. Scott Harvey, is prescription-drug abuse.

The latest Safe Schools Report from the Kentucky Center for School Safety for all Kentucky public schools, shows significant overall gains over the last five years. The report, the ninth produced by KCSS, was broken down by law violations - the more serious violations which include aggravated assault, larceny-theft, burglary, and lesser violations set by school boards, which include fighting, intimidation, defiance of authority, profanity or vulgarity and tobacco violations. The data showed a dramatic reduction in the number of disciplinary actions for the most serious offenses of aggravated assault, arson, larceny/theft and burglary over the five-year period.

Sarah Shay was a vibrant young girl with a bright future, according to her mother, Dr. Karen Shay, a Morehead dentist. “She was a great girl,” Dr. Shay told students, faculty and local officials during an assembly in the West Jessamine High School auditorium Thursday morning. “She was probably a lot like most of you,” Dr. Shay said, with voice breaking at times. Sarah Shay died in 2006 at the age of 19 from a prescription-drug overdose, and Dr. Shay was in Jessamine County along with Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway and Kentucky Drug Czar Van Ingram to talk about Kentucky's prescription-drug-abuse epidemic.

Several bills pre-filed by local lawmakers ahead of the Kentucky General Assembly's regular session next month deal with either drug use among recipients of state and federal funds, or limiting access to illegal drugs. A new version of District 36 Rep. Lonnie Napier's amendment requiring drug testing for people seeking public assistance, including food stamps, has been submitted for consideration after a similar bill was killed in committee previously. He said he expects a different outcome once the legislature returns Jan. 3. Under the new portion of the law, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services would be tasked with implementing a screening program, under which a caseworker would test someone during their initial interview or during subsequent visits based only on suspicion of drug use. Prohibited drugs include all Schedule 1 substances, which range from marijuana to heroin, and any Schedule 2-5 substances not prescribed by a physician.

Prescription drug abuse is alarmingly high across the nation, and the statistics for Kentucky speak for themselves. According to Kentucky’s attorney general, fatal drug overdoses have doubled over five years and are now the second leading cause of accidental death. Even more troubling is the fact that one in five teens has abused prescription drugs. This is a trend that is shattering lives, and we must address it now. To combat this growing problem, I have reintroduced a bill that would reauthorize a program I originally authored in 2005 known as the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act. Upon enactment, NASPER established a federal program assisting in the creation, improvement or expansion of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and for the sharing of prescription data electronically among states.