'PILLHEADS' ADD TO DUI PROBLEM

Drugs Rival Alcohol In Some Counties

PIKEVILLE -- Law enforcement officials say eastern Kentucky's raging
prescription-drug problem is changing the face of a DUI. "Everybody you're
looking at now is a pillhead," said former Martin County Sheriff Darriel
Young, who left office last month. "In the last couple of years, it's
gotten a whole lot worse. Everybody's pilling."

County after county has seen explosive growth in "drugged" driving, a
signal that the abuse of narcotics rivals or surpasses the abuse of alcohol.

"The day of the old-fashioned drunks on the road is about over," said
Flatwoods Police Chief Buddy Gallion, who said more than half of his DUI
arrests now involve drugs.

Last June, 24 of 27 DUI cases in Martin District Court involved drugs, not
alcohol, court records show. In 2000, Martin, Laurel and Clay became the
first Kentucky counties in which drug-related DUI charges outnumbered
alcohol-related DUIs, state records show.

In the last several years, eastern Kentucky has become a posterboard for
the abuse of legal prescription painkillers, such as OxyContin and Vicodin.
Nearly half a ton of narcotics reached six small mountain counties from
1998 to 2001 -- the equivalent of three-quarters of a pound for every adult
who lives there.

In an analysis of federal data, the Lexington Herald-Leader found that, on
a per capita basis, eastern Kentucky drugstores, hospitals and other legal
outlets received more prescription painkillers than anywhere else in the
nation.

The abuse reflects in the number of people seeking residential treatment
for painkiller addiction -- it nearly tripled from 1998 through 2001,
according to Scott Walker, the substance abuse program director for
Mountain Comprehensive Care in Prestonsburg.

Prescription-drug abuse has been "slow and insidious over the years; the
last three or four years, it's been overwhelming," Walker said.

Law enforcement says the increase of abusers has created problems with DUI
arrests. Quick, easy Breathalyzer tests, routine in drunken-driving
arrests, will not work in drug cases. Instead, drivers' blood samples must
go to the state crime lab, where a nine-month backlog jeopardizes
prosecutions in some counties.

Clay County Attorney Clay Bishop Jr. said that more than a few drug-related
DUIs have been dismissed because of delayed test results.

Though state records show significant growth in drug-related DUIs across
Kentucky during the late '90s, the problem was particularly acute in
eastern Kentucky. In 2000, one out of every three motorists stopped on a
first-offense DUI in eastern Kentucky was alleged to be impaired by drugs.
In the rest of the state, the figure was one out of every 10.