Prescription Drug Summit draws Kentucky Leaders

WKMS | By Todd Hatton

Published April 9, 2012 at 7:45 AM CDT

Top Kentucky health leaders and lawmakers trying to end multistate prescription drug trafficking and abuse are meeting in Florida this week. The National R-X Drug Abuse Summit runs from tomorrow until Thursday in Orlando. The event is organized by the eastern Kentucky anti-drug group Operation UNITE. It will feature remarks by Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin and U.S. “Drug Czar” R. Gil Kerlikowske. Operation UNITE president Karen Kelly says the Commonwealth is not an island when it comes to prescription drug abuse, which kills more Kentuckians than car wrecks. Governor Beshear says the summit will build a critical mass of urgency including law enforcement, government, and the medical community.

Tags

Todd Hatton

Todd Hatton hails from Paducah, Kentucky, where he got into radio under the auspices of the late, great John Stewart of WKYX while a student at Paducah Community College. He also worked at WKMS in the reel-to-reel tape days of the early 1990s before running off first to San Francisco, then Orlando in search of something to do when he grew up. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Murray State University. He vigorously resists adulthood and watches his wife, Angela Hatton, save the world one plastic bottle at a time.

See stories by Todd Hatton