Health News
A Kentucky congressman called "ground zero" in the war against drugs Wednesday as officials gathered in London for the regional meeting of the UNITE Coalition. In attendance was director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowke, right, who has been touring the state to investigate prescription drug abuse.
U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, R-5th District, was the keynote speaker, The Sentinel-Echo's Nita Johnson reports. "Our back yards have been become battlegrounds," Rogers said. "Just last week, five pharmacies in the area were robbed. Our overdose rate is twice as high as the rest of the country."
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- Rogers, Florida Colleague File Measure To Crack Down On 'pill Mills'
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Health News
Kentucky is 'ground zero' in the war on drugs, Rogers says
A Kentucky congressman called "ground zero" in the war against drugs Wednesday as officials gathered in London for the regional meeting of the UNITE Coalition. In attendance was director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowke, right, who has been touring the state to investigate prescription drug abuse.U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, R-5th District, was the keynote speaker, The Sentinel-Echo's Nita Johnson reports. "Our back yards have been become battlegrounds," Rogers said. "Just last week, five pharmacies in the area were robbed. Our overdose rate is twice as high as the rest of the country."
Rogers, left, repeated expressed his dismay over Florida Gov. Rick Scott's proposal to cancel his state's prescription-drug monitoring program, which has yet to really start. The lack of a monitoring system allows drug dealers to "doctor shop," obtaining prescriptions for drugs they sell in Kentucky. "There are drive-through pain clinics in Florida and 98 percent of the top 100 pain killers is oxycodone," Rogers said. "Last year, Florida alone issued 19 million units of oxycodone. This is an urgent crisis for the people I represent."
Rogers credited UNITE coalitions for fighting against the problem. "Adversity is being harnessed into hope," he said. "UNITE is reshaping future generations."
At a roundtable discussion before the gathering, Kerlikowske spoke of his goals. "I'm here to listen," he said. "The drug problem really impacts so much of our country ... It cuts across all of the social lines, all of the racial lines." (Read more)
- National Rx Drug Abuse Summit, A Kentucky Product, Seeks To Make The Nation Face Up To Its Problem
The second annual National Rx Drug Abuse Summit, organized by Eastern Kentucky's Operation UNITE, called for a national commitment to combating the country's drug-abuse problem U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-5th District"People of great passion and perspective...
- Conway Pushes For All States To Track Prescription Drugs
As Kentucky lawmakers consider legislation that would tackle suspect pain management clinics, the issue is making waves in Washington as well. On Thursday, Attorney General Jack Conway, right, told the U.S. Congress "that every state in the nation needs...
- Prescription Drug Abuse Is An Epidemic Nationwide And In Ky.
Prescription pain medicine overdoses now kill more people in the U.S. than heroin and cocaine combined, with 40 Americans dying every day from painkiller abuse. "This stems from a few irresponsible doctors," said Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers...
- Drug Czar Offers Plan To Cut Abuse Of Oxycodone, Related Drugs
The White House drug czar announced today he wants to cut misuse of oxycodone and other opioid drugs by 15 percent in the next five years, and revealed his strategy for how to make that happen. Gil Kerlikowske, the national drug policy director, wants...
- Rogers, Florida Colleague File Measure To Crack Down On 'pill Mills'
U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers of Eastern Kentucky's 5th District continues to pressure the White House for more action to crack down on "crook doctors operating these pill mills," the Lexington Herald-Leader's Halimah Abdullah reports. (H-L photo...