APPALACHIAN SENIOR CITIZENS CHARGED WITH SELLING THEIR PRESCRIPTION
DRUGS

PRESTONSBURG - After being fingerprinted and photographed,
87-year-old Dottie Neeley sat quietly in the local jail, imprisoned
as much by the tubing from her oxygen tank as the concrete and steel
surrounding her.

The elderly woman who sometimes uses a wheelchair is among a growing
number of senior citizens charged in a crackdown on the illegal trade
of prescription drugs, a crime that authorities say is rampant in the
mountains of central Appalachia.

Floyd County jailer Roger Webb said seniors have a ready market for
their prescription pills, especially painkillers, and some may be
succumbing to the temptation of illegally selling their medications.
"When a person is on Social Security, drawing $500 a month, and they
can sell their pain pills for $10 apiece, they'll take half of them
for themselves and sell the other half to pay their electric bills or
buy groceries," Webb said.

Since April 2004, the anti-drug task force Operation UNITE has
charged more than 40 people 60 or older with selling drugs in the
mountains of eastern Kentucky. It's a recent trend that Webb said has
been growing over the past five years, since police began their
crackdown on illegal sales of prescription drugs.

"It used to be a rare occasion to have an elderly inmate," Webb said.
"Five years ago it was a rarity."

Dan Smoot, a former state police drug detective who heads the task
force, said the senior citizens being charged aren't always people
struggling to put food on the table.

"Most of the elderly we arrest are merely continuing a family
tradition," he said. "It has been part of their culture for a long
time." Webb said local jails are having to bear the increased cost of
caring for aging inmates.

"You've got to give them more attention," he said. "It's putting a
strain on my deputies. We're understaffed anyway. You've got to get
them doctors, and meet their medical needs."

In nearby Pike County, jailer Rodney Scott said the overall increase
in elderly inmates is small, but noticeable. He said senior citizens
have more health problems than younger inmates, which means they
require more time and attention from his staff.

The Rev. Doug Abner, pastor of Community Church in Manchester and an
anti-drug crusader, said seniors may not understand the seriousness
of selling prescription drugs.

"They justify it because they're having a hard time financially," he
said. "Left to ourselves, we can justify anything, but they're really
part of the problem."

Neeley, the 87-year-old who was arrested along with her son and his
girlfriend, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of
trafficking in prescription drugs and marijuana. However, a
prosecutor has agreed to a five-year sentence and has promised not to
oppose "shock probation" if Neeley enters a guilty plea at her next
scheduled court appearance. Under shock probation, a defendant who is
unlikely to repeat the crime is released from prison after getting a
brief taste of life behind bars.

Her defense attorney, Terry Jacobs, said the plea bargain would be a
gamble. He said if the judge doesn't grant the motion for shock
probation, Neeley could die in prison.

"It's been our position all along that six months is a death sentence
for her," Jacobs said.

In a telephone interview, Neeley said she suffers from emphysema and
asthma, and uses oxygen daily. She said she was shocked when police
arrived to arrest her, making the 4-foot 8-inch, 120-pound woman walk
from her house to a cruiser.

"I had to hold my hands up all the way," she said. "They wouldn't let
me hold them down." Neeley said she doesn't know why she was included
in the roundup of drug dealers last December.

"I was always against drugs," she said.