DRUG PROBLEM

Reprimanded dentist shouldn't lead group

Even if Dr.  David Narramore's motives are 100 percent pure, his selection as chairman of an anti-drug group in Letcher County is bound to create distrust.

Unless Narramore steps down and gives the group a chance at a fresh start, he also will discredit U.S.  Rep.  Hal Rogers' regional initiative to combat illegal drug use.

The objections to Narramore are twofold, as Herald-Leader staff writer Lee Mueller reported.

The state dentistry board publicly reprimanded Narramore last year for sloppy record-keeping when prescribing painkillers in his Whitesburg dental practice.

And he became chairman of the local anti-drug group after its election was hijacked by people perceived to have a vested interest in sparing Whitesburg's medical and legal establishments from criticism or change.

"A hostile takeover" is how Letcher County Judge-Executive Carroll Smith describes Narramore's 65-53 election in March at a meeting packed with members of the medical and legal communities.  Since then, most of the group's original grass-roots members, including neighbors of drug dealers and parents of users, have quit.

The local group is part of Rogers' $16 million UNITE -- short for Unlawful Narcotics Investigation, Treatment and Education -- initiative in the 29 counties of Rogers' district.

We expect that many Letcher County residents agree with Smith when he says, "I've got a problem with a doctor that has been investigated and charged with improperly dispensing prescription drugs being chairman of a coalition whose goals include looking at doctors."

The medical community has a vital role in combating the epidemic of prescription drug abuse.  Local anti-drug efforts need doctors and judges.  They need regular folks, too.

Unfortunately, the professionals who now dominate Letcher County's local group have created the impression that they are more interested in saving themselves from scrutiny and criticism than they are in saving families and communities from the ravages of addiction.

It appears the health care professionals don't want to give regular folks even a toehold from which to question how the industry is run, including what safeguards are in place to prevent overprescribing, doctor shopping and criminal activity.

Narramore should think about the appearance he has helped create.  And that appearance just gets worse when you factor in his $7,500 in contributions to Rogers' campaigns since 1997 and his history as a Republican Party chairman in Letcher County.

Narramore might mean well.  This looks, nonetheless, like one in a long line of episodes in which the politics of self-interest and power are steamrolling the people of Eastern Kentucky.