Dr. Rahul Gupta Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Drug Czar Visits W.Va. To Discuss Overdose Epidemic

The nation’s drug czar visited West Virginia University Thursday as the start of a multi-day tour of the state. The purpose of the trip is to discuss local and national efforts to address the overdose epidemic.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy led a panel of lawmakers, university and student leaders, including Dr. Clay Marsh, to discuss the Biden Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy.

He said he was happy to be back in what he considered his home, and that West Virginia is leading the nation in its response to the opioid epidemic.

“For several years, I’ve seen the work grow, the treatment sites get better and better, specifically in West Virginia as a model for the nation,” he said. “When we think about treatment, we in the Biden administration, until now, about $15 billion dollars have come through to West Virginia.”

Gupta previously served as the Commissioner of DHHR’s Bureau for Public Health and State Health Officer before becoming the first doctor to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy when he was appointed in 2021.

He said the landscape of the overdose epidemic has changed, shifting towards synthetic drugs and predominantly online access to them and requiring a multidisciplinary approach. Gupta compared the state of addiction medicine and policy to cancer in the early 20th century.

“This is one of the most significant shifts in drug policy we’re making in the last half century. The President’s strategy, my office, our defense, is looking at two key drivers: untreated addiction and the lack of treatment infrastructure,” he said. “That’s no different than when we were with cancer a hundred years ago. A disease that was highly stigmatized, poorly resourced. Today, if you look at it, we treat with compassion and empathy, we’re on top of the world when it comes to diagnosing, treating and preventing cancer. That’s where we need to be with addiction mental health.”

Much of the day’s discussion revolved around the issues of mental health at the core of the epidemic.

“We really need to be looking at this as itself a crisis, mental health, and then obviously its overlap with addiction as well,” Gupta said. “So I applaud the work that is happening here. I think more schools K through 12, as well as nurses have to be engaged in mental health because it is a true challenge.”

Gupta will continue his tour Friday in Charleston and in Lewisburg Saturday, where he will visit the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.

Local, State And Federal Stakeholders Discuss Severity Of Opioid Addiction Crisis

Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the former West Virginia state health officer, was joined by Gayle Manchin Thursday during a second day of roundtable discussions about the severity of the opioid and addiction crisis in West Virginia.

Local business, faith, health and law enforcement leaders offered up their individual wish lists to stem addiction and substance use disorder (SUD).

Most conveyed their concern about the need for follow up services to help people reentering the community following addition treatment. One of the most pressing needs included transportation.

Sen. Joe Manchin’s wife Gayle filled in for her husband who was absent for reasons related to surgery. The federal Co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), she talked about $15 million invested in 49 INSPIRE projects to support a continuum of care, including rehab and recovery programs, as well as business and community collaborative efforts.

Manchin talked of her husband’s efforts to secure funding for abuse and addiction and recognized Gupta for spearheading efforts to fight the drug epidemic.

“Doctor Gupta, thank you; for being most importantly, who you are. And that is a caring, passionate, caring individual that understands Appalachia, understands rural America, but like me you are impartial and you are serving our country at a very critical time” she said.

Gupta announced $12.4 million has been awarded in grants for 99 new community coalitions across the country as part of the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program. Three are in West Virginia. The additional $375,000 in funding from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) will be used to mobilize communities to prevent and combat youth substance use. The money will be divided between The Martinsburg Initiative, Jefferson Berkeley Alliance, and Logan County Prevention Coalition.

“This is a syndemic which means there are so many other problems related to this, we have to look at this more holistically,” he said.

Earlier this week U.S. Sens Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito announced four grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support first responders and address substance use disorder treatment, prevention, and mental health needs.

Dr. Matthew Christenson, director of West Virginia’s Office of Drug Control Policy, also said recent CDC numbers show West Virginia is one of only six states that has shown a 4 percent decrease in 12 month addiction numbers since the peak of the overdose crisis during the pandemic. The national average is 9 percent.

Dr. Rahul Gupta In Charleston For Roundtable On Drug Epidemic

Former state health officer Dr. Rahul Gupta joined law enforcement officers in Charleston Wednesday for a discussion about West Virginia’s overdose epidemic.

The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) roundtable was one of several stops on Gupta’s visit to the region to share President Biden’s response to the state’s opioid epidemic. Police chiefs from Charleston, Huntington, Boone County and Kanawha County talked with Gupta about the crisis facing the state.

Gupta said the country as a whole is facing the most dynamic drug supply environment in its history. He said more than a million American lives have been lost to drug use over the past couple of decades. The statistics are staggering.

“We know that right now across the country we are losing an American every five minutes around the clock,” Gupta said. “We’ve had some of the highest numbers in terms of passing the hundred thousand death mark in any 12 month given period like we’ve never had before.”

With more lethal drugs on the market, Gupta said a noticeable shift from organic or plant based drugs to synthetic drugs has opened a Pandora’s box.

“Not only do we see fentanyl, meth and cocaine, drug suppliers are able to create any number of combinations, if you have creative chemists sitting in a lab,” he said.

Gupta said tackling untreated addiction and drug trafficking continue to be priorities of the Biden administration. He talked of the need to control the ingredients for fentanyl from entering the country and state.

“We want to make sure those containers that are coming to shores here, Mexico or other places, if illicit or licit chemicals, we find them, prevent them from shipping and interdict them so they don’t turn into fentanyl and kill Americans.”

In response to questions from law enforcement officials about funding for specific campaigns and programs to prevent first time drug use in kids, Gupta cited the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Program where 700 youth coalitions have been formed across the country, including West Virginia.

The nationwide effort, led by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) where Gupta serves as the director, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provides funding and support to community coalitions to prevent and reduce youth substance use.

Every law enforcement official present at the roundtable talked to Gupta about a critical shortage of manpower in their departments to fight drug abuse.

Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford said recruitment of officers has become an uphill battle.

“As little as eight or nine years ago we’d get maybe 200 people, or more,” said Rutherford. “We gave a test last Saturday; we had 11 people show up. Eleven people. That’s crazy.”

Gupta acknowledged the need for more officers to fight the drug epidemic as well as an additional state drug testing center to address a backlog in cases. The process of testing for a particular drug like fentanyl can be complex when other drugs or chemical compounds are present. The backlog creates a huge difference in the time it takes to prosecute a case.

Law enforcement officials also discussed the plight of tracking people released from the court system into rehab as well as the need for better communication tools to trace dealers through shared information at the state and national level.

The drug epidemic’s impact on families, communities as well as the officers on the front lines is something Gupta remains committed to solving.

Later Wednesday afternoon Dr. Gupta visited West Virginia Health Right where he treated patients in recovery when he was in West Virginia.

US Drug Czar Testifies In W.Va. Lawsuit Against Opioid Makers

The new White House drug czar has testified that the opioid epidemic got so bad in drug-ravaged West Virginia that the state was having trouble finding foster parents to care for children.

Dr. Rahul Gupta was one of the first witnesses whose video deposition was played at a bench trial Tuesday in which several pharmaceutical manufacturers are accused in a lawsuit of contributing to the crisis.

Substance abuse in West Virginia over the past two decades drove a huge increase in foster placements. Currently there are more than 6,500 children in the care of the state. “On the other hand, we had trouble finding even parents who could pass drug tests in order to have those foster children in their homes,” Gupta said.

The state’s lawsuit alleges Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., along with Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc., AbbVie Inc.’s Allergan and their family of companies misled healthcare providers and consumers about the risks and benefits of their opioid products.

Gupta was questioned over several hours on a variety of topics unrelated to the defendants, mostly about his analysis of drug-use data and his time as West Virginia’s chief health officer from 2015 until 2018. Before that he served as executive director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department.

Gupta was confirmed last fall by the U.S. Senate as the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

West Virginia long has led the nation in the rate of drug overdose deaths, statistics that grew “far worse” after he left the state, Gupta said.

“My opinion is that there still exists today an opioid epidemic in West Virginia which is worsening and that includes abuse, addiction, morbidity and mortality,” Gupta said.

Gupta said the opioid crisis also led to increases in public health problems such as Hepatitis B and HIV cases and neonatal abstinence syndrome, which is a withdrawal in newborns caused by exposure to drugs in the womb and stops at birth. Gupta said “the health-care system was clearly overwhelmed. I probably heard that every single day from health-care providers.”

Gupta said a shift from pharmaceutical pills to illicit drugs such as fentanyl and heroin began in 2012 as pain pill prescriptions began to decline. Fentanyl-related overdose deaths increased fivefold alone in West Virginia from 2014 to 2016, he said.

The lawsuit filed by Attorney General Patrick Morrisey accuses the companies of creating a public nuisance and violating the state’s Consumer Credit and Protection Act.

Attorneys for the companies said in opening arguments Monday that their individual products in question had considerably less than 1% of the market share in West Virginia, were medically necessary prescriptions and could not have contributed to the state’s opioid problems.

In November, a California judge ruled in favor of Johnson & Johnson, Allergan, Endo International, Teva and others, saying that local governments hadn’t proven in a lawsuit that the pharmaceutical companies used deceptive marketing to increase unnecessary opioid prescriptions and create a public nuisance.

Nationwide settlements were finalized in February by Johnson & Johnson and distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson over their role in the opioid addiction crisis. That cleared the way for $26 billion to flow to nearly every state and local government in the U.S. West Virginia previously reached settlements in separate lawsuits, including $37 million with distributor McKesson in 2019, and $20 million with Cardinal Health and $16 million with AmerisourceBergen in 2017.

In Charleston, a separate bench trial wrapped up last summer in federal court in a lawsuit accusing AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson of fueling the opioid crisis in Cabell County and the city of Huntington. That judge has not indicated when he will rule.

Biden To Nominate Former West Virginia Health Officer As Drug Czar

President Joe Biden is expected to nominate a former West Virginia health official as the nation’s top official on drug control policy.

The White House is expected to make official Tuesday afternoon the nomination of Dr. Rahul Gupta as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Gupta currently serves as the top health official at the March of Dimes, an organization focused on maternal and infant wellness. Before that, he served as West Virginia’s commissioner of public health and the state’s health officer from 2014 to 2017.

During Gupta’s tenure in West Virginia, the state suffered some of the worst effects of the opioid crisis.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia praised Gupta’s experience in his field and said his nomination “means someone with firsthand knowledge of the opioid crisis, especially in West Virginia, will be coordinating the national fight against the drug epidemic that continues to ravage our nation.”

Manchin noted that West Virginia has continued to lead the country in drug overdose rates for over 20 years.

“Dr. Gupta will bring over a decade of extensive experience combating the drug epidemic to ONDCP – the office charged with addressing the drug epidemic that has killed over 90,000 Americans just last year,” Manchin said.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Gupta has warned of its effect on addiction and substance use disorders, citing a shift away from in-person care.

During a briefing on the state’s response to the pandemic, Gov. Jim Justice confirmed news of Gupta’s appointment.

In a statement, Justice said Gupta has “led the way” in the state’s battle against the opioid crisis.

“Under his leadership, our state had turned a corner in that fight,” Justice said. “There’s still much more work to do, especially with the additional challenges brought on in the past year by the COVID-19 pandemic, but I believe that there is no one better-suited to this important job than someone who represented a state and a people where this crisis really hits close to home.”

Leaders of the West Virginia Senate also congratulated Gupta on the nomination.

“This is outstanding news for West Virginia, and for the entire country,” said Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley. “Dr. Gupta is a world-class advocate for public health. His leadership was critical in West Virginia’s fight against the opioid epidemic, and his guidance was critical as we developed new policies to protect and support our families who experience substance abuse disorder. I look forward to the great things our country will accomplish in this fight under his leadership.”

The West Virginia Senate unanimously adopted Senate Resolution 24 during the 2021 Regular Session, which urged President Biden to appoint Dr. Gupta to the role. Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, who is a physician, was the lead sponsor of the resolution.

“I’m ecstatic to learn that Dr. Gupta has been nominated to lead this office,” Takubo said. “Dr. Gupta is truly a bipartisan, nonpolitical person, whose interests are pure. If he’s able to accomplish even a fraction of what he did for West Virginia in his new federal role, the United States will really be headed in a positive direction with handling the opioid epidemic.”

Following Biden’s win as president in Nov. 2020, Gupta helped lead the president’s transition team on efforts related to drug control policy.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he’d be the first physician to hold the Drug Control policy director position.

Rahul Gupta Resigns as Commissioner of Public Health, Accepts Position at March of Dimes

Rahul Gupta, MD has resigned from his post as commissioner and state health officer for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, effective Nov. 5. Gupta is moving to the March of Dimes as its senior vice president and chief medical and health officer.

Gupta has been commissioner for public health since 2015. Before that, he was the director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department.

Gupta said he feels that his West Virginia work connects closely to the new position at the national headquarters of the March of Dimes in Washington D.C.

“It really has become for me a concern about what happens to the future generation in terms of addictions – whether it’s obesity, tobacco or drugs/mental health,” he said.

Gupta said the March of Dimes position will allow him the opportunity to focus more on mothers and babies and how obesity, tobacco and drugs impact prematurity, birth defects and infant and maternal mortality.

In so doing, he hopes to address the problems facing the next generation.

The DHHR said they intend to do a nationwide search for his replacement.

Gupta has been commissioner for public health since 2015. Before that, he was the director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department.

Gupta said he feels that his West Virginia work connects closely to the new position at March of Dimes.

“It really has become for me a concern about what happens to the future generation in terms of addictions – whether it’s obesity, tobacco or drugs/mental health,” he said.

Gupta said the March of Dimes position allows him the opportunity to focus more on moms and babies and how obesity, tobacco and drugs impact prematurity, birth defects and infant and maternal mortality.

He said that by working with moms and babies he hopes to address the problems facing the next generation. He will be based at the national March of Dimes office in Washington, DC.

Gupta’s last day is November 5th. The DHHR said they intend to do a nationwide search for his replacement.