CONCERN FOR DRUGS IN MINES VOICED

Coal Operators Seek State's Help

PRESTONSBURG-- Coal operators are asking state officials for help in
identifying drug-addicted coal miners who travel like nomads from one mine
to another hoping to work long enough to pay for another fix.

"You cannot hire anyone to work anymore. First check they get, they're gone
on drugs," said Linton Griffith, manager of Dags Branch Coal in Pike County.
"If something is not done about the drug problem, there's not going to be a
mining industry."

Griffith was one of about 50 people who attended a public hearing yesterday
called by the Kentucky Mining Board as part of a fact-finding mission to
gauge the impact of substance abuse on mine safety.

Coal operators who packed into a meeting room at Jenny Wiley State Resort
Park said drug abuse is widespread.

Tim Miller, a mining board member who led the public hearing, said
information gathered may be used to urge the Kentucky General Assembly to
create new laws to combat the problem.

Miller said the mining board may push for legislation to deal with the
problem. He said that could include requiring drug screening of miners
involved in an injury accident, requiring coal operators to report the names
of miners who fail drug tests, and giving mine inspectors the authority to
order drug testing on miners who appear to be impaired.

"One of our biggest concerns is this growing epidemic," Miller said. "The
extraction of coal is dangerous enough without being impaired by drugs."

Drug abuse among miners came to the forefront last year after a miner was
killed and another seriously injured at the Cody Mining Co. in Floyd County.
Marijuana was found at the scene, and an employee told investigators that he
saw two miners snorting crushed painkillers.

An autopsy found that the dead miner had taken illegal drugs, said Holly
McCoy, a spokeswoman for the Office of Mine Safety and Licensing.

In a separate incident, marijuana was found during a surprise inspection at
a coal mine in Harlan County last fall.

Incidents such as those prompted the mining board to begin an investigation
into the prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse among miners.

Bill Marcum, vice president of the Kentucky Coal Association, said he thinks
the problem involves a small minority of mines. "Most coal miners are aware
of the responsibility they have for themselves and the safety of their
fellow miners."

Tony Oppegard, attorney for the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and
Licensing, said miners who abuse drugs go to great extremes to get positions
in the coal industry, which offers among the highest wages in central
Appalachia.

"We have a lot of anecdotal evidence of miners failing a drug test at one
company and going to the next company and getting a job," Oppegard said.

Donna Johnson, another Kentucky coal operator, said some drug addicts will
stop using long enough to pass the drug screen, then start abusing again.
"These guys know how to play the game," she said.

The owner of a Prestonsburg drug-screening company said she tested one coal
mine where half the miners had used drugs.

Constance McGuire, owner of Eastern Kentucky Occupational Health Services,
said marijuana was the most common drug abused by coal miners, followed by
prescription medicines, cocaine and methamphetamine.

Carroll Green, supervisor of mine inspectors for the Virginia Division of
Mines, said half to two-thirds of would-be miners fail pre-employment drug
tests in that state. He said his agency has received 21 drug-abuse
complaints about miners so far this year.