DRUG PROGRAM LEADS THE WAY

FRANKFORT -- The anti-drug program in this city is off to a steady start.

Frankfort Police Sgt. Wes Hickson estimates that parents have bought
about 200 of the alcohol and marijuana tests that the department
began selling in October.

The tests, which are available for $2 each, let parents know in
minutes if their son or daughter used alcohol the night before or
marijuana days earlier.

They are part of the Law Enforcement Against Drugs, or LEAD, program
and are intended to give parents a tool to fight substance abuse in
their own families without calling the police.

"I think some of the parents who should be purchasing them aren't,"
Hickson said.

Hickson bought 1,000 alcohol tests and 1,000 marijuana tests with a
grant from the Clinton County Drug and Alcohol Coalition. He expects
the current supply to last him until the summer.

Some people have even come from outside the city to buy them, Hickson said.

David Prichard, owner of TDS Inc. -- the Michigan company that
manufactures the tests -- said that sometimes a steady, maintained
start to the LEAD program in a community is better than one in which
interest is intense but fades quickly.

"A lot of parents are a little reluctant at first," Prichard said.

Hickson said he's heard a lot of positive feedback from parents who
buy the tests to as deterrents.

While he would have liked to have sold more of the tests, he's not
upset with the program's progress in Frankfort.

Prichard said that's not unusual.

"Over 90 percent of our customers reorder."