Overdoses Spike as Huntington Continues to Fight Epidemic

Huntington officials met with the media Monday to discuss how they’re dealing with the drug epidemic.

Late last year, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams established the Mayor’s Office of Drug Control Policy. Their mission was to establish a link between law enforcement and treatment facilities. The hope was to find an alternative approach to dealing with the drug epidemic, by the treating the users. In the meantime, though, Cabell County has seen 134 overdoses 18 deaths since the beginning of the year. If that rate continues, the county could see 680 overdoses and 91 deaths by the end of 2015. 

Since creating the Office of Drug Control Policy they’ve hurriedly been establishing connections with treatment facilities and finding ways to get those in need into those facilities. In that time the office has come up with five new initiatives they hope to implement soon to begin to slow down the amount of overdoses and deaths in the city. The programs according to the city are:

• LEAD Program – Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion. Through this program, low-level offenders engaged in drugs or prostitution will be directed to treatment facilities instead of jail time. 
• Cape 2 Grant – Will allow for development of early-warning protocol in order to be proactive in dealing with addition.
• Hard Reduction – Program that prevents people from causing irreversible damage to themselves and others. Will focus on stopping the spread of infectious diseases as well as promote treatment options.
• Call WV – Platform will assist first responders, healthcare workers, the faith-based community and general public in locating available services.
• Treatment and Recovery Center – Mayor’s Office of Drug Control Policy has been in discussions with a private entity to provide up to 100 treatment and recover beds in the region. 

According to city officials, the average age of someone who has overdosed in Cabell County is 36.