Prescription Drugs

Around noon last Friday, Lincoln County deputies and troopers from the Kentucky State Police (KSP) executed a search warrant of a single-wide trailer on 102 Railroad St. in McKinney and arrested Julian Farmer for trafficking in controlled substances. Farmer, 69, had been under surveillance by KSP’s Drug Enforcement Special Investigations Unit (DESI) for a long time and a confidential informant had successfully purchased prescription drugs from him which aided the KSP in obtaining a warrant for the search.

Winchester Police DARE officer Chris Cantor talks to Hannah McClure Elementary fifth grade students about the differences in over-the-counter and prescription medicines as part of the DARE program and Red Ribbon Week Thursday morning, top photo. William Stanfield, bottom right photo, reads directions on the label of an over-the-counter medicine during the program. Madison Crawford, bottom left photo, was the lucky student this week who got to hold “Daren the DARE Lion” during the program.

On Saturday, the Nicholasville Police Department, along with hundreds of law-enforcement agencies across the United States, will participate in the National Prescription Drug Take Back Program. This program is designed to allow citizens to turn over expired prescription and over-the-counter drugs so that they may be disposed of in the proper manner, according to a news release from the NPD.   Experts say the United States' water system contains unsettling amounts of prescription medications due to these items being flushed into the water system.

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 Nicholasville Police Department is taking a proactive step in combating the problem of prescription drug abuse. Next week, the police department will mail letters to the many physicians and other health care professionals in Jessamine County. The letters will include the names of those individuals who have been convicted of some type of prescription drug abuse. "This is (Maj.) John Branscum's idea," Police Chief Barry Waldrop said. "Maybe because he's done so many media releases on drug busts and all the names he's identified with and thought, 'Hey, why not take this a step further in order to combat drug trafficking.

More than one out of every 10 deaths the Jessamine County coroner investigates involves the abuse of prescription drugs. Since 2009, the coroner's office has investigated a total of 35 drug-related deaths, and county coroner Michael Hughes said the common denominator has been prescription drugs. “Of the 12 drug-related deaths over the last two years (2011 and through July 25, 2012), only one was the result of a nonprescription drug,” Hughes said. “The vast majority are prescription drugs.” Hughes, who has been in office since January 2011, said his statistics are based on those who died within Jessamine County and not people who were transported to Lexington hospitals and died in Fayette County.

Several teens are out of school this week after a student was accused of selling prescription medication at a central Kentucky high school, according to WKYT-TV. Nearly ten students are suspended from Garrard County High School over a drug investigation involving anti-depressants A student was caught selling the drugs to members of the freshman class. She may face expulsion and or criminal charges, depending on what the school board decides.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is spearheading a nationwide prescription drug “take-back” initiative that seeks to prevent increased pill abuse and theft. The service is free and anonymous, and no questions will be asked, according to a news release from the DEA. The DEA, with help from local law enforcement agencies, will be collecting potentially dangerous expired and unused prescription drugs for destruction at sites nationwide on Saturday, Sept. 25, from 10 a.m to 2 p.m. “With this National Prescription Drug Take-Back campaign, we are aggressively reaching out to individuals to encourage them to rid their households of unused prescription drugs that pose a safety hazard and can contribute to prescription drug abuse,” Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler said in a news release.

On Saturday, the Boyle County Sheriff’s Office will be part of an effort by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to get as many prescription drugs out of circulation as possible. It is the first time the DEA has headed up a nationwide effort to destroy prescription drugs and also the first time the county has done a take-back day. Sheriff Marty Elliott said people can bring any of their expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs to the sheriff’s office from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, no questions asked.

How can something prescribed by a physician be dangerous? The obvious answer is, misuse of prescription drugs is harmful and can be deadly to those taking prescription medicines not prescribed to them. Lately, it's not just adults that are abusing medication, but our teenagers. The 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported the second most common type of illegal drug use after marijuana is the non-medical use of prescription drugs. Parents can prevent drug abuse by setting clear expectations for their children and understanding the dangers and consequences associated with abuse of prescription drugs.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway warned students at George Rogers Clark¿High School that they risk their lives and futures if they take medications not prescribed for them by a doctor. “We've lost an entire generation to prescription drug abuse,” Conway told the students Thursday afternoon during an appearance at the school. That's why he's been touring high schools around the state to warn students about the dangers of prescription drug abuse. “The non-medical use of prescription pain relievers among all age groups in Kentucky is down, and for the first time we are below the national average for prescription drug abuse,” Conway said in a press release.

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.

Haley Tye is rifling through a medicine cabinet and swiping her mother's prescription drugs. She was acting, portraying one of many teens who abuse drugs in a video created by the Clark County High School's ASAP (Agency for Substance Abuse Policy) Youth Network. The video won the 2012 Keep Kentucky Kids Safe public service announcement contest, it was announced this week. Later in the video, Tye's mother, played by her real-life mom Terry Tye, discovers the misplaced drugs and disposes of them at the dropbox at the Winchester Police Department.

Would you sell your soul for a drink of whisky? Before Danville and most of Boyle County went wet, plenty of half pints of liquor were given to tobacco farmers who sold their tobacco at the local tobacco auction barns, and no doubt there were bootleggers and moonshiners selling illegal booze when Boyle County was dry. I believe it is unethical for Planned Parenthood to take money for federally-funded partial birth abortions, and all the nurses...

More than one out of every 10 deaths the Jessamine County coroner investigates involves the abuse of prescription drugs. Since 2009, the coroner's office has investigated a total of 35 drug-related deaths, and county coroner Michael Hughes said the common denominator has been prescription drugs. “Of the 12 drug-related deaths over the last two years (2011 and through July 25, 2012), only one was the result of a nonprescription drug,” Hughes said. “The vast majority are prescription drugs.” Hughes, who has been in office since January 2011, said his statistics are based on those who died within Jessamine County and not people who were transported to Lexington hospitals and died in Fayette County.

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.

Addiction to legal prescription drugs has become a major public health issue across the United States. This problem has been especially hard on Kentuckians, particularly those in the poorer parts of the state. This addiction is leading to increased incidents of crime, loss of employment opportunities and, sadly, many deaths, particularly of our younger citizens. I was shocked recently to learn in a conversation with a state senator that there were more deaths from prescription overdoses last year than from motor vehicle fatalities on the highways across our state It is quite understandable then why the Kentucky General Assembly felt compelled to address this problem by regulating pain management clinics with the so-called “pill mill bill.

As part of the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Program, the Nicholasville Police Department collected 54 pounds of prescription and over-the-counter drugs Saturday. The NPD had officers stationed at Kroger on South Main Street and Walmart on North Main Street from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. collecting the different medications, officer Kevin Grimes said. Grimes said the 54 pounds was about the average the department has collected in the past. “The last time, we were probably between 50 and 70 pounds, give or take,” Grimes said, adding that the department participates in the Drug Enforcement Administration program twice a year.

The Kentucky House has passed legislation that limits the quantity of popular over-the-counter cold and allergy medications - again, only more so. According to published reports, the measure passed now to the Senate for approval would allow folks to purchase 7.2 grams monthly of medications containing pseudoephedrine, and up to 24 grams each year. An additional 7.5 grams per month, or 90 grams per year, could be obtained with a prescription and, as we all know, doctors would never prescribe anything that was not completely necessary, and then only in the correct amounts, so since no one would allow someone else to use medication that was prescribed to that person ... yay!

There have been many times of devastating weather in the past, and I always thought how terrible it was. It came home last week for a lot of us. And although I've written my news articles on this topic several times, it's worth repeating again to get the message across; Severe weather can strike with very little warning. With some pre-planning you can help protect yourself, your family and others. - During thunderstorms and other severe weather warnings, seek shelter inside a home or large building.