'UNITE' TO BE SET UP IN 29 E. KENTUCKY COUNTIES

HAZARD - Frenchburg Mayor Dwain Benson told a group of federal and state
leaders yesterday how, with the help of a counselor, he dug himself out of
a pit of alcohol and prescription-pill addiction that reached its nadir 16
years ago when he threatened to shoot his new wife and later couldn't
remember it.

"We're doing very nicely now, thank you," said Benson, now in his second
term as mayor of the Menifee County seat. "But it's a terrible thing. It
just eats you alive ... and you're always that close to slipping back into
that pit."

Benson's testimonial helped mark the beginning yesterday of a $8 million
federally funded program announced by U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, to
combat what Rogers termed a "drug epidemic" in 29 Kentucky counties.

Rogers cited a recent Herald-Leader series, Prescription for Pain, which
reported that Kentucky leads the nation in prescription-drug abuse.

"This is the worst, most devastating problem I've seen in my public life,"
Rogers told the group. "These drugs have torn families apart, ruined lives
and stretched the resources of law enforcement and social-services agencies
to the absolute limit.

"That's not acceptable," he said. "That's going to change, starting today."

Rogers secured funds in Congress for the three-year program, which was
labeled Operation UNITE, an acro-nym for Unlawful Narcotics Investigation
Treatment and Education. It will finance the creation of a three-pronged
attack on the problem, he said.

. Law enforcement: Three task forces will be created in roughly three area
development districts -- Cumberland Valley, Kentucky River and Big Sandy --
to focus on drug interdiction, confiscation and undercover operations,
Rogers said.

Each task force will have its own director and board, he said. Initially,
one federally trained undercover agent will be assigned to each county to
work with local law enforcement officials to target corrupt health care
professionals, Medicare and Medicaid fraud and street-level dealers "and up
the hills and hollows in our region," he said.

"We will not be nice," Rogers said. "We're going to ask them to bear down.
Most will be undercover and be able to operate across county lines. And as
UNITE grows, we hope to be able to increase the number of agents."

At the same time, U.S. Attorney Greg Van Tatenhove has committed six roving
special prosecutors to work with local commonwealth's attorneys on the
project, Rogers said.

. Treatment: UNITE will help coordinate efforts by private and state drug
treatment services, Rogers said, and work with state officials to establish
additional drug courts in the region. Research indicates that while drug
courts motivate defendants "to get off drugs," only 11 of the 29 counties
now have them, Rogers said. He and Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice
Joseph Lambert will meet April 22 with all circuit judges with a goal of
establishing a drug court in at least each judicial district, he said.

. Community coalitions and education: The program will help coordinate
various local anti-drug and court-watch groups in the same way Rogers'
PRIDE program has attacked the region's litter and untreated sewage
problems, he said.

Karen Engle, director of the PRIDE program, will be executive director of
UNITE.