ANTI-DRUG GROUP FILLS GAPS IN LEE

Members Monitor Treatment And Prevention Programs

State and local officials were pleased yesterday when 40 members of a Lee
County anti-drug group showed up in circuit court to witness the
indictments of 48 alleged drug dealers.

"They're monitoring these individuals in court so they don't just get a
slap on the wrists," said Larry Carrico, executive director of the Kentucky
Agency for Substance Abuse Policy, which was created by the Patton
administration.

It was the first major step for the group -- People Encouraging People, or
PEP -- which received a $50,000 state grant yesterday to help monitor drug
prevention and treatment programs in the county.

"We want to encourage police and judges and county prosectors to make these
charges stick instead of letting them out on probation or reducing their
bonds," said PEP's director, Anna Marie Dunahoo of Beattyville.

The money, part of a $5 million appropriation by the 2000 General Assembly,
is administered by the newly created Lee County Agency for Substance Abuse
Policy Board, said Leslie Hawk, a spokeswoman for the state agency. The Lee
County agency is one of 14 local boards covering 43 Kentucky counties that
have received a total of $1.8 million so far, Hawk said.

"They will use the money to help fill in gaps that might exist in
programs," Hawk said. "It's not Frankfort telling them what they can do. We
don't live in Lee County. But, obviously they've got a problem with
OxyContin and prescription drugs."

That is not news to Lee County officials, where a drug roundup on Tuesday
netted the 48 alleged dealers, many of them on charges relating to
OxyContin, and where drug problems go back to at least the early 1990s.
That's when two consecutive sheriffs went to federal prison, along with the
Beattyville police chief, on drug charges.

In 1991, then-Sheriff Johnny Mann was one of six Eastern Kentucky law
officers charged with taking a total of $90,000 in payoffs to protect
cocaine smuggling through the area. Omer Noe, then the police chief of
Beattyville, was snared in the same FBI sting.

Mann is still serving a 24-year prison sentence. Noe, sentenced to 10
years, has been released.

In 1994, Doug Brandenburg, who replaced Mann, was charged with being part
in an international drug-distribution ring. He pleaded guilty to
obstruction of justice and received a nine-month sentence.

"That's a long way from the type of law enforcement we have here today,"
said Beattyville Mayor Charles Beach III.

Lee Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Hall said he welcomed the efforts by the
anti-drug group, including its court-watch program.

"I was happy to see people coming out to support the work our police
officers have done," Hall said. "The only way we're going to make a big
dent in this is through education and teaching young people not to get into
this subculture."

Beach agreed. "I think the rest of the story will be how the courts deal
with these cases," he said.

Reach Lee Mueller at (606) 789-4800 or lmueller1@herald-leader.com.