YET ANOTHER BLOW TO THE FOURTH ESTATE

The Kentucky Appalachian Commission was in Paintsville Friday primarily to
discuss the region's problem with drugs. This area is particularly ripe for
the proliferation of illicit drug dealing because - to oversimplify a
complex issue - we have too many people with nothing else to do. The drug
business offers much greater returns than minimum wage jobs, and the risk of
getting caught is not much of a deterrent for people who basically have
nothing to lose. The "products" are relatively easy to come by...they can be
grown, cooked up in home labs, or collected via prescription card from an
apparently endless supply of cooperative doctors. And there is always
somebody ready, willing and able to buy. Doesn't paint a pretty picture for
our future, does it? So far about the only things we've accomplished in our
ongoing War of Drugs are overcrowded jails and near bankrupt governments
from our single-minded purpose of eliminating the supply. The reality,
though, is that we'll never make headway in this fight until we find a way
to adequately combat the demand side of the equation. Unfortunately, that
may well be the impossible dream.

While we're on the subject of addiction, those of us who are slaves to
caffeine are none too happy about the coffee industry's obvious turn for the
worse on issues concerning quality. A recent report says the main players in
the coffee business are buying more low quality beans to satisfy their own
thirsts for profits, while we drinkers are forced to sacrifice taste. Our
first advice would be for these companies to wake up and smell the coffee.
If they did, they'd get a whiff of what we're tasting - as one quality
control expert noted - "an old shoe from the back of the closet." Sadly,
though, the coffee companies have us over a barrel. Either we shell out more
for higher quality or settle for less. Kicking the coffee habit is not an
option.