…And Miles to Go Before I Sleep.

Poet Robert Frost wrote ‘the woods are lovely, dark and deep…and miles to go before I sleep” in his classic “Stopping By Woods on A Snowy Evening”. What he wrote in 1922 could well describe Kentucky’s traverse through the woods of prescription drug abuse.

Recent data indicates our state is, in fact, making progress in the battle against illegal prescription drugs (the woods), but we still have a very long way to go (the miles). Kentucky still ranks behind only West Virginia and New Mexico in drug overdose deaths. And that death rate has quadrupled in the last 14 years. But we are moving.

The drug policy report card, issued by the Trust for America’s Health, gives Kentucky a nine out of ten for its efforts in combating prescription drug abuse. Two states received 10s, five others received 9s, so we’re in a pretty elite group. These grades are based upon a number of factors, but those most in Kentucky’s favor include those reflected in our recent Pill Mill Bill and the greatly increased usage of KASPER data by Kentucky physicians.

Dan Smoot, CEO of Operation Unite, called the report encouraging. Smoot said, “We have a ways to go, But there have been times in the past when it felt hopeless.”

Robert Frost didn’t know about the darkness of prescription drug abuse. But we do.