$8 million earmarked for Kentucky drug battle

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES IMPEL REQUEST FOR FUNDS

Law enforcement, treatment and education efforts to fight a debilitating
drug problem in Eastern and southern Kentucky will get an $8 million boost
from the federal government.

U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, R-5th District, announced yesterday that he
requested money for a new anti-drug campaign in his district, and it was
included in the giant federal budget bill approved late Thursday.

Rogers said at a news conference in Lexington that he sought the funding
after reading recent Herald-Leader articles about the drug problem in
Eastern Kentucky, and talking with police and others about the situation.

Drug abuse -- particularly involving prescription drugs -- has caused
deaths, ruined lives, increased crime and outstripped the resources of
police and of treatment providers, the congressman said.

"By any measure, this is the worst drug scourge that's ever hit our
region," Rogers said.

Though many details remain to be worked out, the new initiative will
involve three main pieces:

. Setting up regional law-enforcement task forces to investigate drug
trafficking.

. Working with educators to expand education efforts against drug abuse.

. Working with citizens and local groups to "establish drug treatment
programs where they don't exist, and expand them where they do," Rogers said.

The program will be administered by the Center for Rural Development in
Somerset.

Glenda Shrum, Knott County Health Department administrator and member of a
local drug-abuse council, said she was thrilled to hear about the
initiative. She has written letters to Rogers, state lawmakers, the
governor and even the president about the lack of drug treatment in Eastern
Kentucky.

The drug council has been applying for grants to start an outpatient
treatment program. But word of the new funding inspired Shrum to thoughts
of a more comprehensive residential treatment program. Having "long-term
residential treatment and day-treatment all in one building would be the
ideal situation," she said.

The Herald-Leader reported a number of findings about the drug problem in
rural Kentucky in a recent series of articles. The paper found that Eastern
Kentucky leads the nation in the amount of painkillers per capita that
reach drugstores, hospitals and other legal outlets, the influx of
painkillers increasing the potential for illegal diversion.

The newspaper also found that medical regulators and state law haven't kept
pace with the soaring abuse of prescription drugs; that police agencies are
short-handed; that there is a shortage of treatment; and that there are
significant disparities among state courts in dismissal rates, conviction
rates and sentencing in drug cases.

Rogers said that after reading the articles, he discussed the situation
with police and the U.S. Attorney's Office and came up with ideas to tackle
the problem.

He then went to U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf to wangle money. Wolf is a Virginia
Republican who is chairman of the subcommittee that oversees funding for
the federal Justice Department.

Rogers hopes some of the money will be used for extra prosecutors in state
courts to help prosecutors who want assistance.

Rogers also announced that the budget includes $7.5 million for which
states can apply to set up or expand prescription-drug monitoring programs
- -- a budget initiative established last year with $2 million and named for
Rogers.

Kentucky has been a leader with its monitoring system, known by the acronym
KASPER. It can be used to investigate people who illegally obtain multiple
prescriptions.

Rogers would like to see Kentucky upgrade the system to track prescriptions
in real time, so that it could be used to block fraudulent requests for
drugs by someone who had recently filled an identical prescription. That,
plus setting up KASPER-type systems in surrounding states, would make a big
dent in prescription-drug fraud, Rogers said.

Kentucky has applied for $250,000 to test such a real-time system in Harlan
and Perry counties. Rogers said the program hasn't started and needs to be
expedited.

Gov. Paul Patton sought almost $1.5 million last year to upgrade KASPER so
police and other users could get immediate answers to requests for data.
They now wait an average of four hours.

That plan, which is in limbo, is less advanced than a real-time system. But
it's the best use of scant state resources, said Danna Droz, who runs the
KASPER system.

A real-time system would be very expensive, Droz said in a recent
interview. It would also be of less immediate value than providing fast
responses, she said, because most KASPER users are examining long-term
patterns of abuse, doctor-shopping or other prescription irregularities.
Though its data might be a month old, the current system helps detect those
things, she said.