Summary of recent Kentucky newspaper editorials:
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Jan. 12
Lexington Herald-Leader on pragmatism versus politics:
In a better world, ethical business practices would have averted the flood of prescription painkillers that triggered mass addiction.
In this world, choices made in company headquarters fueled the opioid crisis that is straining thousands of Kentuckians, their families and governments. Employers say it’s hard to find workers who screen free of drugs. Kentucky has the nation’s fifth-highest rate of fatal overdoses.
Despite all that, Republican Gov. Matt Bevin and Republican lawmakers are blocking efforts to make the corporate perpetrators pay something (they could never fully atone) for the harms they have caused.
Republicans are trying to tie the hands of Attorney General Andy Beshear who, whether they like the Democrat or not, is the state’s chief legal officer and responsible for protecting consumers from deceptive marketing.
The sniping peaked Jan. 9 when a legislative committee voted on party lines to reject a competitively bid contract between the AG’s office and a team of outside lawyers to pursue litigation against prescription opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers who profited by turning a blind eye to the crisis they were fueling.
States, counties and cities in Kentucky and nationwide, who could never afford to take on deep-pocketed pharmaceutical companies, are employing outside counsel to comb through millions of documents, depose witnesses and build cases. The lawyers are paid a percentage of any award or settlement. Taxpayers are at no risk because if nothing is recovered the lawyers don’t get paid.
In a better world, there would be surer paths to accountability. In this world, government and class-action lawsuits in civil courts serve as recourse and deterrent.
Beshear bent over backward to honor Republican concerns about such contracts and lawsuits. His office complied with limits proposed by a pair of Republican lawmakers last year even though the limits never became law, including a sliding contingency fee of 5 to 20 percent depending on the amount recovered.
The Finance and Administration Cabinet made noises about vetoing the contract but finally gave its approval, only to have the Government Contract Review Committee object. Finance Secretary William H. Landrum III can approve the contract over the legislative committee’s protest. And he should.
Rejecting it would be picking a court fight with Beshear, who would cite statute and constitution to argue that the AG has independent contracting authority. In such a battle, the Bevin administration would be siding with pill-mill profiteers who misled about the addictive properties of their drugs.
Beshear is seen as a potential Bevin challenger in 2019, so the partisan urge to deny him any time in the spotlight is strong.
The opioid plague, however, is bipartisan and does not discriminate by wealth, class or geography. Health officials recently identified a cluster of HIV cases in Campbell and Kenton counties among people who inject opioids. Perry and Leslie counties have the nation’s highest rates of opioid abuse hospitalizations followed by Knott and Breathitt in fifth and ninth.
In a better world, all the resources of the private and public sectors would be deployed in response to this public health disaster. In this world, communities are desperate for help. Settlements of lawsuits against opioid manufacturers already are helping fund treatment for moms and newborns and supporting rehab centers in Lexington, Corbin and Hazard.
In this world, it’s a good time to put pragmatism above politics.
Online: http://www.kentucky.com
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Jan. 12
The Cincinnati Enquirer on needle exchange programs:
It’s time for Northern Kentucky lawmakers to stop resisting, start listening to the health experts and get onboard with needle exchange programs.
The CDC and area public health officials support the exchanges, where sterile needles and other injection equipment are available to people who inject drugs. Programs also offer HIV and hepatitis testing and a pathway to drug treatment.
Health officials in Kentucky predicted the potential for an HIV outbreak as a byproduct of the heroin epidemic. But Northern Kentucky governments didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to get out in front of what experts are now calling “an epidemic within an epidemic.”
Northern Kentucky lawmakers’ indecision on needle exchange programs is aiding in the spread of deadly infectious diseases and could possibly cost lives.
The three biggest counties - Boone, Kenton and Campbell - have all been dragging their feet on passing legislation that would allow the Northern Kentucky Health Department to begin operating syringe access exchange programs out of county health centers. The health department isn’t asking legislators to fund the program, just permission to operate in their jurisdictions. State law requires health departments to get approval from both the county and city for needle exchange programs. Northern Kentucky health officials, so far, have been unsuccessful.
Northern Kentucky has one syringe exchange, which opened in 2016 in the health department’s Williamstown office, in Grant County. It’s funded with private grant money, which is also available for other counties.
The closest the health department has come since is in Kenton County where county and City of Covington officials have given the OK, but with stipulations. Not wanting to shoulder the burden of other counties, Kenton County and Covington have said they would implement the program only if Campbell or Boone county did too.
Campbell County officials have signed off on the program but neither Newport nor Dayton is on board yet. Newport apparently plans to make mention of the needle exchange program at its February meeting. No government in Boone County has taken a vote yet, according to the health officials.
Meanwhile, Northern Kentucky is experiencing an upswing in the number of HIV cases linked to injection drug use. The Northern Kentucky Health Department saw 18 cases of HIV-positive people in 2017, three times the number of cases it saw each year from 2009-2016. The spread of HIV could be worse than that as the count of total cases hasn’t been finalized.
When the first cases of AIDS were reported in the United States in 1981, Congress was slow to respond with funding for research and treatment mainly because of indifference to the main victims of the disease - gay men and drug addicts. Northern Kentucky can’t afford to make the same mistake with heroin and the risk factors associated with injection drug users.
Officials in all three counties need to green light needle exchange programs as soon as possible so health officials can get these infectious diseases under control. Cincinnati and Hamilton County approved public funding for needle exchange operations for this year, a first in their history. They did so because of an upswing in hepatitis C, which also is raging in Northern Kentucky, and concerns about other communicable diseases such as HIV.
Lawmakers also need to send a strong message that counters misperceptions that opioid addiction hasn’t penetrated suburban areas and neighborhoods. Heroin’s reach knows no boundaries.
Compassion and decency should compel us to act against this scourge and not write off its victims because they have made a bad lifestyle choice.
Online: https://www.cincinnati.com
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Jan. 10
The Paducah Sun on spectacles in public office:
Republican House Speaker Jeff Hoover did not go quietly into the night. That resulted in an unfortunate spectacle.
Hoover and three other members of Republican leadership announced in November they were resigning their roles after word leaked that they had secretly settled a sexual harassment claim made by a House Republican Caucus staffer.
Hoover was the legislator most in the crosshairs. He admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with the woman but denied sexually harassing her. To date details of the specific allegations and terms of the settlement have remained confidential. But some sordid emails between Hoover and the woman did become public, including one in which Hoover asks her to send him pictures of herself wearing a lace G-string.
The episode might have faded from public view but for a more recent fit of stupidity by Hoover and some of his House colleagues. Hoover’s resignation could not officially be submitted while the Legislature was not in session. Some lawmakers including Rep. Richard Heath of Mayfield began lobbying colleagues over the holidays not to accept Hoover’s resignation when the General Assembly convened earlier this month.
Hoover was onboard with the idea. When the session began last week, rather than resign he announced that House Speaker Pro Tem David Osborne would preside over the chamber “until further notice.”
This not only provoked a furor; it led eight Republican lawmakers to file formal charges against Hoover seeking his ouster from the Legislature altogether. The legislators alleged Hoover sexually harassed an employee and used state funds to cover it up. The charges resulted in the appointment of a special committee of four Republicans and three Democrats to investigate the claim.
In the end the stakes proved too high for Hoover and his backers. Hoover grudgingly offered his resignation Monday “if accepted by members of the House.” When no member objected, Osborne deemed the resignation accepted.
Ask yourself this: What aspect of the harassment claim could be so damning that the mere reporting of the settlement’s existence compelled four members of Republican leadership to immediately resign? One thing seems clear to us. If the investigation of Hoover proceeds, we’re going to find out.
Hoover did not take Monday’s House decision well. He delivered a scorched-earth parting speech in which he vowed to expose lawmakers and staff members he says worked to oust him. Expose them for what we are not sure, although we cannot help but be intrigued.
Most troubling to us is Hoover’s assertion in the speech the he simply “made a mistake” and that “I did not do anything that was unethical.” That is delusional. It is clearly unethical for a married man in a position of power to engage in a running dialogue of sexting with a female subordinate, consensual or not.
We wonder what it is about the political ether that produces such detachment from reality. And for that matter, we wonder what persuades Hoover’s backers that everyday Kentuckians would be just fine with it if Republicans decided to give Hoover a pass.
It was a bad bet for all concerned. If another shoe does drop, we wouldn’t want to be one of the lawmakers who was carrying Hoover’s water.
Online: http://www.paducahsun.com
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