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Bridgeburner
Not spiritual at all.




Registered: 09/16/06
Posts: 20,010
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Fletcher, Beshear pledge to continue war on drugs
#7388025 - 09/09/07 12:32 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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http://www.kentucky.com/471/story/171754.html
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Sheriff Marvin Lipfird and his deputies rounded up 20 more drug dealers last week in Harlan County and confiscated another load of prescription painkillers destined for eastern Kentucky's black market.
The drug problem, Lipfird said, just doesn't seem to be going away, despite the best efforts of local, state and federal authorities.
"We need more personnel," said Lipfird, who has seven deputies helping him patrol an expansive mountain county that has been ravaged by illegal drugs and by increases in other crimes addicts commit to get money to feed their habits.
"There's not one family in this county that has not been affected by the drug problem, whether directly or indirectly," Lipfird said.
Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher and his Democratic challenger, Steve Beshear, say they have strategies to help Kentucky communities hit hard by illegal drugs. Both are promising to continue the war on drugs if they win the Nov. 6 election.
Lipfird and other sheriffs in rural counties hope that translates into more money to hire deputies for the front lines.
Lawrence County Sheriff Garrett Roberts, a member of the Kentucky Sheriff's Association board of directors, said increases in drug crimes have led to a more pressing need for additional deputies across the state.
"The prescription drug problem is huge," Roberts said.
Fletcher took office nearly four years ago at a time when the state still was trying to get a grip on a drug problem so severe that some officials were calling it "a scourge." Prescription painkillers had become the drug of choice in the mountainous eastern half of the state. Homemade methamphetamine had taken hold in the western half.
The governor set up a state agency specifically to tackle the problem, ramped up a prescription drug tracking system, funded 10 treatment centers for addicts, and pushed legislation through the General Assembly to limit the availability of the ingredients needed to make methamphetamine.
"We have cleaned up drugs in Kentucky," Fletcher said in response to a questionnaire from The Associated Press.
Beshear, responding to the same AP questionnaire, said drug abuse remains "a severe problem" across the state.
"It is time state and local government, law enforcement officials, treatment professionals, and educators join together in a comprehensive attack on this epidemic," he said.
Beshear said he wants to expand drug treatment, detoxification and education.
"The money taxpayers save in reduced crime and decreased law enforcement costs would more than pay for the costs of these programs," he said. "As governor, I would work to expand programs into every county in the state that will emphasize law enforcement, treatment and education."
Sheriffs say beefed up efforts by federal and state law enforcement agencies have helped to put hundreds of drug dealers behind bars, but new dealers quickly take their places.
Martin County Sheriff Garmon Preece said 80 percent of the arrests made by him and his four deputies are drug-related. And although they turn up drugs like marijuana and methamphetamine, the biggest problem remains prescription pills, including the painkiller OxyContin.
The drug, dubbed "hillbilly heroin" in drug-ridden Appalachian communities, has been blamed for hundreds of deaths across the country in recent years. Addicts crush the pill into a powder and snort it.
In 2006, 484 people died from drug overdoses in Kentucky, according to the state medical examiner's annual report. Hillbilly heroin was the chief cause in 16 percent of the deaths.
Despite the best efforts of law enforcement, Preece said the drug remains prevalent in the mountains, and so do the dealers.
Preece said law enforcement can't do much more without increasing manpower.
"We're doing our best with what we've got," he said.
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EntheogenicPeace
Scholar



Registered: 10/04/05
Posts: 3,926
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Re: Fletcher, Beshear pledge to continue war on drugs [Re: Bridgeburner]
#7388078 - 09/09/07 12:48 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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---
Edited by EntheogenicPeace (12/17/16 02:38 PM)
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dutchmushroom
mushroom invader



Registered: 08/02/06
Posts: 1,393
Loc: Outer Space
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Re: Fletcher, Beshear pledge to continue war on drugs [Re: Bridgeburner]
#7388140 - 09/09/07 01:08 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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please give up and let me do my drugs ,
peace out Dm
-------------------- "Comes a time when the blind man takes your hand says: don't you see? Gotta make it some how, on the dreams you still believe, Don't give it up, you've got an empty cup, only love can fill, only love can fill" < Grateful Dead! The bus came by and I got on, and thats when it all began GROWLIGHT KIT, 250w HPS Digital ballast, + Enhanced Spectrum bulb and Reflector Sale Or Trade!
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abesh
Warrior SixDelta




Registered: 07/31/07
Posts: 321
Last seen: 15 years, 5 months
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Re: Fletcher, Beshear pledge to continue war on drugs [Re: dutchmushroom]
#7388182 - 09/09/07 01:23 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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"We have cleaned up drugs in Kentucky," Fletcher said
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outhere4
Anomaly


Registered: 08/07/07
Posts: 457
Last seen: 14 years, 5 months
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Re: Fletcher, Beshear pledge to continue war on drugs [Re: dutchmushroom]
#7388792 - 09/09/07 04:40 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
dutchmushroom said: please give up and let me do my drugs ,
peace out Dm
word
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Alion



Registered: 08/14/07
Posts: 462
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Re: Fletcher, Beshear pledge to continue war on drugs [Re: abesh]
#7388793 - 09/09/07 04:41 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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pabloescabar
Stranger thanyou



Registered: 05/02/07
Posts: 383
Last seen: 15 years, 2 months
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Re: Fletcher, Beshear pledge to continue war on drugs [Re: Alion]
#7389067 - 09/09/07 05:55 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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"There's not one family in this county that has not been affected by the drug problem, whether directly or indirectly," Lipfird said.
Ya there's also not one family in this country that's been affected by the drug war, whats worse someone smoking pot? Or a 92 year old being shot and having weed planted on her?
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