Whitley County officials working to ban pain clinics

 Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. and County Attorney Paul Winchester are taking a page out of the playbooks of Knott, Morgan and several other Kentucky counties in the battle against the abuse of prescription pain pills by crafting an ordinance outlawing the operation of "pain clinics."

At Tuesdays meeting of the Whitley County Fiscal Court, White noted two such clinics had set up shop in Whitley County. He spoke with fellow judge executives, Randy Thompson of Knott County and Tim Conley of Morgan County. Both counties enacted similar ordinances in an effort to stop the pain clinics from moving in before they could become a problem.

"This has strong support state wide because abuse of pain medications has become such a big issue," Winchester said.

White explainedthat in a recent conversation with Whitley County Coroner J. Andrew Croley, Croley said he had been called out to 10 deaths across the county in one given week. Five of those deaths were drug related.

Winchester added that on Tuesday, circuit and district court were both in session in Whitley County. The majority of the cases on both dockets were drug related.

Winchester said he is still in the research phase, but hopes to have the ordinance ready to present to the fiscal court for a first reading at either the April or May meeting.

Unlike Knox and Morgan counties, Winchester said the problem in Whitley County is the two pain clinics that are already in operation.

"How we get around a grandfather clause is the big issue," Winchester said.

The potential penalty for a first-time offender may be up to one year in jail. Winchester added that any other drug-related crime, the penalty will escalate for repeat offenders.

"We want a law that has some teeth in it," White said.

White and Winchester both stressed that if the ordinance is passed, it will not affect area hospitals or doctors and their ability to serve their patients.

Whitley County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy K.Y. Fuson, who attended the meeting, said local law enforcement has been able to diminish the so called "pill pipeline" that runs through Whitley County.

"What we have seen is that they are avoiding Whitley County and bringing them up through Middlesboro," Fuson said.

While he supports the judge-executive’s efforts, Fuson said the problem with prescription drugs can best be addressed at the federal level.

"The problem starts with the lack of federal laws to control prescription drugs," Fuson said, noting previous federal laws mandated drugs such as Oxycodone only be given to terminally ill patients.