This week, people with mental health challenges or substance use disorder often end up in jail. But crisis response teams offer another way. Also, one year after the Mountain Valley Pipeline went into service, people who live directly in the pipeline’s path have received compensation. But not everyone. And, the Sacred Harp songbook gets an update for the first time since the early 1990s.
Home » Ground Zero for the Opioid Epidemic, How Law Enforcement is Finding New Ways to Tackle Addiction
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Ground Zero for the Opioid Epidemic, How Law Enforcement is Finding New Ways to Tackle Addiction
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Like a slow-motion tsunami, the opioid epidemic continues to claim the lives of our friends and neighbors. Four of the top five states with the highest rates of drug overdose deaths are here, in Appalachia.
The drug epidemic is changing, but it’s not going away. People are still fighting for their loved ones and communities. This episode of Inside Appalachia looks at traditional and innovative ways law enforcement is tackling the challenge. And we’ll hear from people who end up behind bars anyway, as they struggle with substance use disorder.
This episode features a series of reports from The Uncertain Hour, a podcast from the American Public Media show Marketplace.
Credit Julia Rendleman/ Marketplace
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Glemia Walker, 51, and her daughter Angela Cantrell, 29, play with Angela’s 3-month-old daughter, Annsley, at home in Wise, Virginia, in December. Cantrell said that lately it seems opioids are losing their grip on rural, southwest Virginia and are being replaced with meth. “The opioids are going away, but meth is taking over,” Walker adds.
Last year we shared an episode of The Uncertain Hour on Inside Appalachia that featured their reporting about some of the root causes of the opioid epidemic. They looked at a highly aggressive marketing campaign by drug companies, like Purdue Pharma, which pushed doctors to prescribe highly addictive pain pills to patients. This week, we’ll travel back to Wise County Virginia with The Uncertain Hour’s producer Caitlin Esch.
In the past decade or so, investigations uncovered doctors who over-prescribed pain pills. Doctors are being arrested and practices are being shut down. But the high demand for opioids is still here, so that means other drugs, like methamphetamine and heroin, are replacing pills and becoming the drugs of choice for many in central Appalachia.
Also in this show, West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Trey Kay, host of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s podcast Us & Them, recently spoke with Caitlin Esch about this series, and how law enforcement’s approach to fighting this challenge is evolving.
You can find the entire series about the opioid epidemic from The Uncertain Hour here.
Roxy Todd is our producer. Eric Douglas is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Jesse Wright. Glynis Board edited our show this week. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. You can find us online on Twitter @InAppalachia.
Communities in Appalachia have long dealt with higher rates of substance use disorder and mental health challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the problem. Localities in West Virginia are trying something new to help people in crisis — and so far, it seems to be working.
This week, people with mental health challenges or substance use disorder often end up in jail. But crisis response teams offer another way. Also, one year after the Mountain Valley Pipeline went into service, people who live directly in the pipeline’s path have received compensation. But not everyone. And, the Sacred Harp songbook gets an update for the first time since the early 1990s.
Dungeons & Dragons, or D&D for short, is a roleplaying game that allows players to inhabit characters in a fantasy setting. They work together to battle monsters, find treasure and tell a shared story in which they’re all the main characters. Youth Services Librarian Jeffrey Wood ran a recent session, guiding a group of young teenagers through an adventure involving a sheep, a dragon made of furniture and a few other creatures.
