TASK FORCE WILL FIGHT DRUG USE

Year after year, the Oldham County Board of Education is told the same
thing: drug and alcohol use among school children is a growing problem.

This year, officials are doing something about it.

They have formed the Oldham County Task Force for substance abuse
prevention in an effort to fight the problem. The group will meet
today to discuss the substance abuse problem among Oldham County's
sixth-through 12th-graders.

The task force formed in response to the 2001 survey results done by
Kentucky Incentives for Prevention, which were presented at the Oldham
County school board meeting Monday night.

KIP surveyed Oldham County sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th-graders in
1999 and again in 2001 about their use of controlled substances for
the last 30 days.

Students in the sixth grade in 1999 were surveyed again as eighth-
graders in 2001 to see if their habits had changed during that time.
The same was done with each of the grades participating in the survey.

KIP found several areas for concern:

* Use of cocaine/crack did not appear in survey results in 1999, but
in 2001 made appearances for all three grade levels.

* Students reported increased use of alcohol, marijuana, tobacco,
narcotics, uppers and over-the-counter drugs between 1999 and 2001.

* Inhalant use was more than five times as high for students who were
sixth-graders in 1999.

One positive result found by the survey was a decrease in the use of
smokeless tobacco by students who were 10th-graders in 1999 and 12th-
graders in 2001.

Liz Burrows, KIP project director, attributed the decrease to
education efforts made in schools about the dangers of smokeless tobacco.

KIP is being implemented with a grant awarded to the Challengers
program. Challengers has been active in Oldham County since the
mid-1980s as a substance abuse prevention organization and will be
involved with the prevention task force.

Other community members and organizations that will be involved are
representatives from the Oldham County Sheriff's Department, the
Oldham County Police Department, the La Grange Police Department, the
Oldham County attorney, district judges, representatives of the faith
community, high school principals, the Oldham County Health
Department, representatives of the business community, court-
designated youth advocates, local attorneys and school board members.
The coalition is being spearheaded by school Superintendent Blake Haselton.

The task force initially met in December 2001 to form the group. Now,
volunteers from that group are meeting again to begin finding
solutions to the problem. They will discuss what resources are
available, identify what and where the problems are, identify barriers
to addressing problems and brainstorm possible solutions.

The discussion group will recommend a plan to address the problems of
substance abuse to the entire task force and to the Challenger's
Coalition, a separate but cooperating body involved in the prevention
of substance abuse. Both groups will review and comment on the
recommendation, and the discussion group will use their input to draft
a final plan.

Although Burrows could not say what recommendations would be made, she
said she was preparing to serve as a resource. Supply and demand,
community norms, availability and enforcement all had to be taken into
account, she said.

"Prevention is definitely a process," Burrows said. "It doesn't happen
over night. It will be a comprehensive plan, and it will take
community involvement."

Blake Haselton noted that Oldham County should be commended for
confronting the substance abuse problem. A lot of school districts
with high performance wouldn't want to see this information, he said.
Even in Oldham County, some civic organizations denied that there was
a problem when first confronted with the information.

"We continue to emphasize this is a community problem," Haselton said.
"We do not provide dip, alcohol or drugs as part of the curriculum. So
far part of the problem has been engaging the community."

Haselton stressed that to solve the problem, the effort would have to
be consistent. A workshop here and there would not be enough.

"It's important to hear this information every year," he said. "I'm
getting tired of the same information every year. It's one area this
community has not addressed."

Liz Burrows said she is excited by the attention the issue is getting.
She believes the task force is new approach to an old problem, and
said she has hope for its success.