PROPOSED DRUG COURTS ON TRACK FOR 2002

GREENUP - Proposed drug courts in three Kentucky counties should be
operational by mid-2002, said the judges who are overseeing them.

Teams made up of judges, prosecuting and defense attorneys, law-
enforcement and probation officials and others involved in criminal drug
cases have been to two training sessions and will attend at least one more,
the judges said.

Circuit Judge Lewis D. Nicholls, who presides over courts in Greenup and
Lewis counties, started planning a drug court there about a-year-
and-a-half ago, while Boyd Circuit Judge Marc I. Rosen initiated his last
September.

The courts are an alternative to prison time for drug offenders, Judge
Nicholls said. "It's a very intense form of prohibition." Offenders
sentenced to the program undergo frequent court sessions and urinalyses in
addition to counseling and drug education.