West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is debuting a statewide faith-based initiative aimed at getting more churches involved in the fight against substance abuse.
Morrisey plans to announce the initiative at a news conference Wednesday at the state Capitol in Charleston.
West Virginia has the nation’s highest drug overdose death rate by far, with 41.5 deaths per 100,000 people in 2015. State health officials say the number of overdose deaths rose nearly 18 percent last year to 864 people.