PENCE PUSHES TREATMENT FOR DRUG OFFENDERS

Lt. Gov. Steve Pence addressed Hardin County residents at the
Elizabethtown-Hardin County Chamber of Commerce luncheon in
Elizabethtown Thursday.

Pence said Kentucky is taking a new approach to combating illegal drug
use.

"We've got to get away from the mentality that we will incarcerate our
way out of the drug problem," Pence said.

Pence said not only that Kentucky could not afford to keep people
behind bars, but also that treatment and rehabilitation provide a
better solution to the problem.

Pence said a summit drawing on expertise from across the state has
been looking at the scope of the problem, the assets available to
fight it, what has and has not worked in Kentucky and in other states,
and at what the best way is to use the state's assets.

Recommendations coming out of the summit were assembled Wednesday in
Frankfort, and will be passed on to Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

Important questions remain, Pence said, such as how to determine which
drug offenders are recommended for treatment, where the money will
come from and the best way to get someone into treatment.

"These are going to be tough choices," Pence said. "Our answer is not
going to be more of the same."

Pence said the best approach was to attack the drug problem on the
front end. One way to slow down the supply is to reduce the demand, he
said.

Parents, families and entire communities need to reach out to
teenagers and let them know that drugs are not cool, Pence said.

Pence said not even his own 16-year old son will be spared the
pressure to try drugs.

"Every kid will face that dilemma at some point in their life," he said.

Pence said one way to get through to teenagers is to capitalize on the
fear most teens have of getting caught when they try drugs or alcohol.
Pence said drug testing for teens and using drug-sniffing dogs in
schools would send strong messages to teens not to try drugs.

Pence said drug problems cross county borders when law enforcement
cracks down in a certain county.

"It's like holding Jell-O," he said. "You squeeze it and it will ooze
somewhere else."

Hardin County Sheriff Charlie Williams, who participated in the drug
summit, said education could be effective in helping teens stay away
from drugs. The one thing officers cannot do is instill the values
that keep teens off drugs in the first place, Williams said.

Besides talking about Kentucky's efforts to eradicate drugs, Pence
also spoke about his frustration with the Kentucky General Assembly's
failure to pass a budget.

Pence said Fletcher delivered plans for operating within budget
constraints without raising taxes and for modernizing Kentucky's tax
laws to make them more business friendly. Both plans were blocked, he
said.

Those people are standing in the way of Fletcher's ideas and derailing
the will of the people, Pence said.

"When the people in the state overwhelmingly elected Governor
Fletcher, they put their stamp of approval on his ideas," Pence said.