Tagged: drugs

A drug task force in south-central Kentucky is on the verge of expanding into a third county.

The Bowling Green daily News reports the Barren-Edmonson County Drug Task Force is poised to add Allen County as a partner. The task force is based in Glasgow and investigates drug crimes in Barren and Edmonson counties.

Task force director Jeff Scruggs says the partnership has received approval from city and county governments in Allen County. The final steps are filing and registering paperwork to officially add the third county to the agency.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has stepped up the fight against synthetic drugs by signing emergency regulations banning newly identified forms of synthetic marijuana.

Beshear's action Tuesday is the first time an administrative regulation has been used to outlaw synthetic substances, which mimic the effects of cocaine, marijuana and other illegal stimulants.

In the past, Kentucky lawmakers have passed laws banning drugs known as "bath salts" and synthetic marijuana.

The governor says his regulation will allow the state to keep pace with "backyard chemists" who try to skirt the law by slightly altering formulas of such dangerous substances.

Kentucky U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell is urging White House Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske to include Hardin County in the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. That would mean more federal resources to combat illegal drugs in an area that has seen a significant increase in drug related crimes.