A PRESCRIPTION FOR DESTROYING SMALL TOWNS

Drug-Trafficking Doctors Making Life Harder For All

Small towns in Kentucky have, for some time, been experiencing a disturbing
rise in drug use, especially among youth. This reality strikes at the very
heart of what is good about small-town life, and it should alarm us all.

According to indictments, Paintsville has recently been victimized by
unscrupulous doctors who practice very little healing but apparently do a
whole lot of selling.

For the right price, they allegedly provided prescriptions for every
narcotic imaginable.

The folks who stand in line outside such prescription mills are not
patients, but customers. They come several times a month and pay up to $75
each for prescriptions for Xanex, Soma, Lorcet or OxyContin, often
reselling them on the street at an enormous profit. Black market trading in
prescription medication has become a multimillion-dollar business in
small-town Kentucky.

This daily drug activity has a very negative effect on the virtues of
living in a small town. Doctors who participate in it are not pillars of
the community. They are destroyers.

In many cases, they have transferred their practices to our towns for
questionable economic or legal reasons, and they bring a criminal element
with them in the form of their so-called patients, which drives local crime
rates to record highs.

While in town, these "patients" commit crimes to support their drug habits.
They are arrested for DUI, driving on suspended licenses, traffic
violations, public intoxication, shoplifting, domestic violence and any
number of illegal activities associated with drug dependency.

In Paintsville, we have experienced an alarming increase in burglaries and
theft. We attribute this crime wave directly to users' need for quick money
to pay for the drugs to which they so easily become addicted. We have also
seen the number of DUI arrests increase, with about eight out of 10 being
drug related.

Alcohol intoxication has become less of a problem. We are now dealing with
pillheads who fall asleep at the wheel or pass out while driving or while
sitting at traffic lights.

The collisions and traffic tie-ups they cause place a significant burden on
our police officers, who usually have to arrest the driver for DUI as well
as work the accident scene.

Another problem directly linked to the misuse of prescription drugs has
been the increasing number of emergency ambulance runs. In Paintsville, we
have been averaging 10 to 15 overdose calls a month. Some of these people
end up in comas or in the morgue.

OxyContin alone was responsible for 59 deaths in five Eastern Kentucky
counties between January 2000 and January 2001. In the past year, we have
had 10 drug-related deaths in Johnson County.

Most of the drugs involved can be traced back to one or two local doctors.
In February, more than 200 people in Eastern Kentucky were indicted for
dealing in or abusing OxyContin.

The dilemma that local officials face is that there is no easy way to
control the source of these narcotics. Licensed physicians are allowed to
prescribe drugs, and when one of them chooses to become a supplier of
medically unnecessary prescriptions, there is little that local law
enforcement can do.

Enforcement has to come from the Kentucky Medical Licensure Board.
Unfortunately, in my experience, the board has been very slow in addressing
these situations.

Illegal use of drugs is often thought of as an urban problem. But it is
equally frustrating in smaller communities, perhaps made worse by its
in-your-face, everyday persistence.

No matter how much effort law-enforcement agencies put into the eradication
of drugs, the problem won't go away. As long as there are unscrupulous
doctors who have abandoned the ethical practice of medicine, there will be
a never-ending pipeline of pills to satisfy the addicted.

This problem is not unique to Kentucky; it is rampant throughout rural
America. As a mayor, I am concerned not only about unscrupulous doctors who
prey on our citizens, but about the root causes of drug abuse -- a concern
I share with my urban counterparts.

Is it a lack of economic opportunity that drives our citizens to drug
abuse? Is it a consequence of a loosening of familial and community ties?
Is it the continued drag of poor educational attainment?

Whatever the cause, this development is undermining an already tenuous
future for our small towns. In Paintsville and across the nation, citizens
have invested a lot of time, effort and pride in rebuilding vibrant
communities, and we've seen some promising results. Educational attainment
is on the rise. Young people are starting to come back to their home towns.
Steady growth in tourism is bolstering local economies.

But, as recent developments have shown, there is much still to be done. We
need to work together at the local and state levels to eliminate the drug
scourge from our cities, towns and countryside.

We need to join forces with professional and civic organizations to
reaffirm what we once called community standards.

If we work together, we can achieve the sense of safety and the quality of
life that once were the hallmark of small towns.