Beshear says more in Ky. are arrested for driving drugged than drunk; not so, but drugs may be bigger in collisions and fatalities

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

While telling a television reporter about his experience with an overdose victim in Lexington, Attorney General Andy Beshear said fewer people are charged with driving drunk in Kentucky than with driving drugged.

The available statistics don't support that specific claim, but national data indicate that drugs may be a greater problem than alcohol in traffic collisions and fatalities in the U.S.

Miranda Combs of WKYT-TV paraphrased Beshear as saying, "Today, there are more people arrested for driving under the influence of drugs in Kentucky than alcohol."

Like the rest of the nation, more Kentucky drivers than ever are driving under the influence of drugs, and the number of alcohol-related DUIs has decreased. However, in Kentucky, those caused by alcohol still outnumber those caused by drugs.

Kentucky State Police data

According to the Kentucky State Police, alcohol-involved DUI citations in Kentucky decreased 8 percent between 2015 and 2016, from 11,428 to 10,514. During the same period, drug-involved DUIs increased 12 percent, from 6,989 in 2015 to 7,812 in 2016.

So, in 2016, there were still 2,702 more alcohol-related DUIs than drug-related ones. (Total citation data are compiled only annually because reports from some local law-enforcement agencies are entered manually.)

The report also shows citations for DUIs that involved both alcohol and drugs. This number was about the same in 2015 and 2016: respectively, 1,749 and 1,794.

Samantha G. Lickliter, a KSP program coordinator who pulled the report for Kentucky Health News, said there may be some overlap in the data because it is up to the officer to decide how to record the citation. For example, she said some officers may have individually checked the alcohol and drug involved boxes if both were involved and the "both" box, which would make the same person be counted twice in the data.

Beshear's office did not provide any specific information to support his assertion, but did reference two press releases on the topic and referred Kentucky Health News to the University of Kentucky's Transportation Center.

The center's 2015 “Traffic Collision Facts” report also doesn't support the attorney general's claim. It says there were 4,217 collisions with alcohol involvement, 110 of them fatal; and 1,639 collisions with drug involvement, 34 of them were fatal. The figures are based on reports by the investigating officers at the time of the collisions.

A separate report looked at blood samples from those killed in collisions, and found 233 of the fatalities had a drug in their system. Jerry Pigman, a research engineer with the center, advised caution when citing this number related to DUIs because "There are numerous drugs detected without a known level of what constitutes impairment.”

Pigman said the center will conduct research on the differences in reported levels of drug involvement in fatal collisions beginning Oct. 1, with the finished report due Sept. 30, 2018.

Research shows that drugged driving is increasing nationwide, just as it is in Kentucky, and that broadly defined, driving drugged may be more common than driving drunk.

The latest version of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Roadside Survey of Alcohol and Drug Use by Drivers found that the number with alcohol in their system has declined by nearly one-third since 2007, and by more than three-quarters since 1973. But it also found a large increase in the number of drivers with at least one drug that could affect safety in their system.

The 2014 roadside survey, which is voluntary and anonymous, found that 30 percent of drivers tested positive for alcohol in 2007, but only 8 percent did in 2007.

In the same period, the share of drivers with drugs in their systems rose from 16 percent to 20 percent, and the number with marijuana in their system rose by half.

This report also cautions that "drug presence does not equal impairment," noting that some drugs linger in the body long after their impairing effects on driving have passed.

A separate report found that positive drug tests were more common than positive alcohol tests among fatally injured drivers in 2015.

The Governors Highway Safety Association and Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility report released in April found that of those tested, drugs were present in 43 percent of the motorists who died, while alcohol was present in 37 percent.

Beshear shared the same story he shared with WKYT at the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky's Howard L. Bost Memorial Policy Forum in Lexington Sept. 25.

Beshear told the group that he and cyber-crimes investigator Josh Keats, who is also a paramedic, were sitting in a traffic jam at about 3 o'clock on a Thursday afternoon in Lexington a few weeks ago when they saw someone jump out of a car and start beating on the window of the car next to them. They were about six cars back.

"And as we turned on our lights and rushed over, he was turning blue, he then started turning purple and as Josh will tell you, the next color is death,” Beshear said. “The person in that car had just overdosed on carfentanil.”

Carfentanil is used as an elephant tranquillizer and is 100 times as strong as fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin.

Beshear said he and Keats “wrestled him from the car” to the street and were grateful that the police showed up with a life-saving drug that reverses opioid overdoses.

“Thank God,” he said. “Lexington police showed up in time with Narcan . . . and we were able to revive him.”

He added, "It shows you that if this isn't just the single greatest moral challenge of our time, not only was his life in danger, but he was operating a motor vehicle. Your life was in danger too.”

In an effort to to educate prosecutors and law enforcement officials on the detection, apprehension and prosecution of drugged drivers, Beshear's office, the Governor's Office of Highway Safety and the Unified Prosecutorial System held a three day training in April. Beshear was recognized last year by the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility with the 2016 Leadership Award for his work to fight drunk and underage drinking; 

Senate Health and Welfare Chair Julie Raque Adams, a Republican moderate from Louisville, had a banner session

Sen. Julie Raque Adams

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

The term "public servant" comes to mind when state Sen. Julie Raque Adams starts talking about being a legislator, especially when she mentions the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, which she chairs.

"I love it," Adams said. "I love every minute of it and I feel very blessed to do this job."

Adams, a Louisville Republican, has chaired the Senate's health committee for three years and calls it "the best committee in the whole legislature."

She added, "It is the committee where you can really touch individuals as well as groups, and that is very important to me. I'm a big believer that if I'm going to take time away from my family to do a job like this, I want to feel as if I'm touching someone, or helping someone or changing someone's situation."

Adams had a banner legislative session. She got a smoking-related bill passed, as well as two pieces of legislation that had been introduced for years, one after it had been vetoed by Gov. Matt Bevin.

"I really felt like I brought a lot of really significant issues to the table and I feel very proud that I was able to get a lot of them passed," she said.

Smoking, mental health and DUIs

Passing any kind of smoke-free legislation in Kentucky has proven to be a monumental task, especially since Bevin has said smoking bans should be local issues.  

Despite polling that says 71 percent of Kentucky adults support a statewide smoking ban and 85 percent support tobacco-free schools, for the first time in six years a smoking ban wasn't even introduced, and a Senate bill to make all Kentucky schools tobacco-free died in the House. 

But Adams, who is often a co-sponsor of anti-tobacco legislation, filed a bill this session aimed at decreasing the state's high smoking rates by requiring all Kentucky health plans, including Medicaid, to provide barrier-free access to all federally approved smoking-cessation treatments. It passed.

"The smoking-cessation bill was tricky only in the sense that most people believed that I was bringing another smoke-free ban because the word smoking was in there," Adams said. The bill leaves the responsibility with smokers, while assuring that they have the tools they need to help them quit, she said. 

Another victory for Adams was the General Assembly's override of Bevin's veto of "Tim's Law," legislation she sponsored that lets judges order mentally ill adults who meet strict criteria into an "assisted outpatient treatment" program, and confine them if they don't comply. This was the fifth year the measure had been introduced.

The legislation is called "Tim's Law" for Tim Morton, a Lexington schizophrenic whose mother had him hospitalized involuntarily 37 times to get him the treatment he needed. He died in 2014. 

Another long-introduced measure that finally passed was House Bill 222, which eliminates "shock probation" for those who kill someone while driving drunk. Adams, who carried the bill in the Senate for Rep. Robert Benvenuti, R-Lexington, said she became involved with the bill soon after she was elected to the House, after learning about a girl who was killed in Seneca Park by a drunken driver who only served two months before being granted shock probation. 

A moderate, and now less of a horse trader

Adams, always the optimist, said most legislators are there to do the "right thing."

"Even though politicians get a really bad rap, particularly nowadays in this toxic environment, I think that most of the people here, along with me, are really here because we are trying to do the right thing. And so I hope that Frankfort does not turn into Washington, D.C., because we are making progress and I think we are helping people."

Asked if  her comments would be different if Democrats were in control, Adams said she has always believed, and still hopes, that lawmakers are all there to serve Kentucky and should be able to work together. She recalled serving two terms under Democratic control in the House before becoming a senator.

"When I was in the House under Speaker Stumbo, I still got some things done and I think the reason is because I was not a bomb thrower," she said. "I was respectful. I worked with them under their structure that they had established. . . . You have to pick and choose your battles."

Adams said it's been easier to get things done in the Senate health committee since Republicans took control of the House because she can prioritize and collaborate on issues with Rep. Addia Wuchner, R-Florence, chair of the House's health committee.

Adams called the change a "breath of fresh air," saying they no longer had to be so secretive or always be dealing in a "horse trade" to get things done. "And so, it's a very positive energy now that I feel in our synergies, in our chairmanships," she said.

Senate Democrats, long in the minority, like Adams. "She treats everybody fairly and I have not found her to use the weight as her chairman to cut people off," said Sen. Julian Carroll of Frankfort, a former governor who is on the health committee. "She does her best to make certain that everybody has an opportunity to be heard. I am extremely complementary of her,"

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Paducah, also on the committee, added persistence to that list of strengths. He said her persistence with the shock-probation bill and her willingness to have open discussion with him about it over the years helped him to finally vote in favor of it.

"She has a very good ability to convince and to make adjustments where they need to be adjusted and to compromise where that needs to be done," Carroll said.

Julian Carroll vounteered, "I consider her, by the way, to be one of the more independent members of her caucus in that she seems to be her own boss without question. She doesn't always agree with leadership and sometimes she votes against leadership."

Adams was the only Republican senator to join all Senate Democrats in voting against HB 281, which would have stripped the power from the attorney general (now a Democrat) to file civil lawsuits or handle appeals on behalf of the state, and instead award those powers to the governor (now a Republican).

"I think there is a time sometimes to toe the party line," she said, "and there are times where my constituency expects me to be an independent voice, and so I try to meet all of those expectations." She said she absolutely is a Republican, and is pro-life.

Adams is less conservative on some issues than most Republican senators, and was the only GOP co-sponsor of a bill to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes under the state civil-rights law.

The civics teacher

"I love first of all being a voice for those who are voiceless because if you look at so many of the issues we deal with, they are not that interesting to a lot of people and they are difficult and they are sad and they are hard, and I almost think it takes a mom to be that person who steps up for some of those other moms," Adams said.

"And one of the biggest eye-openers for me is the lack of knowledge of how the political process works. . . . I love to take people and I say, 'Here's how it works, and let me hold your hand and let me take you through this process and then maybe we'll see if we can get something done.' I never make any promises, but I always tell them, 'I'll listen and I'll help you and I will be your advocate and we'll navigate this together."

Adams said she has surprised some constituents with how far she will go, having good ideas put into bill form for review. "I'll e-mail it back to them and they will say, ' Oh my gosh, you mean my idea is actually in bill form?' . . . I think the best ideas come from the people that you represent."

And they can come from anywhere. "My husband sometimes won't let me go to the grocery store because he says Kroger is my campaign headquarters," Adams said. "Every line, they are like 'Hey, I've been meaning to call you about this.'"

Looking ahead

Looking ahead to the 2018 legislative session, Adams said topics on the horizon include medical marijuana, creating real access to cannabidiol oil in Kentucky, finding more ways to address addiction and recovery, and gun violence.

She said some are surprised when she talks about gun violence as a public-health issue, a view not commonly held by many Republicans.

"I truly think that the violence that we are experiencing in our state, and particularly  in Louisville, rises to the level of a public-health issue," she said. asked if she was talking about gun-control measures, she said, "I think we need to have that conversation."

Study finds that frequent consumption of energy drinks, even without alcohol, is associated with more frequent drunk driving

Image: childrensmd.org

Energy drinks don't have to be combined with alcohol to increase the risk of drunk driving, according to a new study.

Researchers had already found that frequent mixing of alcohol with energy drinks contributed to drunk driving, but they didn't expect to find that "consuming energy drinks without alcohol contributed additional risk for drunk driving, regardless of alcohol drinking patterns," said a Research Society on Alcoholism news release.

The report called this finding "unexpected" and said it "suggests that mechanisms other than the promotion of heavy drinking by energy drinks are involved in promoting drunk driving."

The researchers found that 57 percent of students consumed energy drinks; 9 percent drank them exclusively with alcohol, 16 percent drank them exclusively without alcohol, and 32 percent drank them both with and without alcohol, depending on the occasion.

"The authors encourage parents, clinicians, and college administrators to regard any style of energy drink consumption, whether with or without alcohol, as a warning sign that students might be at high risk for alcohol-related consequences such as drunk driving," the release said.

New study finds texting and driving kills and injures more teens than drinking and driving, and is becoming more prevalent

A new study finds that texting while driving has become more dangerous among teenagers than drinking and driving, and it says the number of teens who are dying or being injured as a result of this habit has "skyrocketed."

Nationwide, more than 3,000 teens are killed and 300,000 are injured as a result of texting and driving, compared to 2,700 deaths and 282,000 injuries from drinking and driving, said researchers at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

"A person who is texting can be as impaired as a driver who is legally drunk," said Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Cohen.

Adesman and his team found that the number of teens who text and drive exceed the number who drink and drive, that more boys admit to texting than girls, and that texting increases with age, writes Delthia Ricks of Newsday. While teens' texting is increasing, the CDC reports alcohol use among teen drivers has decreased by 54 percent over the past 14 years.

On Wednesday, officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration described texting as among the worst of driver distractions, and Adesman says texting is as hazardous as "drinking and driving, binge drinking, drug and tobacco use, unsafe sex and tanning devices," writes Ricks.

"We have very strong taboos against drinking and driving. Kids don't drink and drive every day," Adesman said. "But some kids are out there texting and driving seven days a week -- and they admit it."

High gas prices = fewer traffic accidents, including DUI mishaps

There is one benefit to gasoline prices reaching nearly $4 a gallon: The rate of traffic accidents, including drink-driving accidents, goes down as gas prices go up.

These were the findings in a study by Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center, which "analyzed total traffic crashes between April 2004 and December 2008, comparing gas prices to traffic safety statistics," research reporting service Newswise reports. SSRC demographer Guangquing Chi looked at factors including age, gender and race.

"The results suggest that prices have both short-term and intermediate-term effects on reducing traffic crashes," Chi said. The short-term impact involves younger drivers. Intermediate-term impact is related to older drivers and men. Short-term impact "refers to immediate effects, for example how a current month's average gasoline prices affect the same month's traffic crashes. Intermediate-term impact refers to effects over a one-year subsequent time period," Newswise reports. (Read more)