LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - An increase in dangerous drug paraphernalia along roadsides has led the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to issue warnings to its 700 Adopt-A-Highway groups.
WAVE-TV (https://bit.ly/1DEt057) reports state officials posted a video warning to the cabinet’s website in April and has added similar wording to training brochures handed out to the groups.
Adopt-A-Highway coordinator Keith Buckhout says the major dangers are the increasing number of heroin needles and mobile meth labs.
The new warnings tell groups to step back if they find such drug paraphernalia and call police or the state highway department so that specially trained crews can safely dispose of the litter.
“It’s extremely dangerous,” Buckhout said. “We don’t want any sort of volunteer to come across any of that. And if they are unfortunate enough to come across something like that we want to make sure that they don’t touch it.”
He said many groups include children.
“There’s a lot of Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops. Youth groups are pretty heavily involved,” he said.
Buckhout said the transportation department has been dealing with the issue in northern and western Kentucky for a while, but decided this year to issue warnings statewide.
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Information from: WAVE-TV, https://www.wave3.com
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