Last month, Beckley was poised to become the first city nationally to earn a special status for its addiction recovery resources. But on Tuesday, Beckley residents packed a meeting of the Beckley Common Council to express concerns over the plan.
Last month, Beckley was poised to become the first city nationally to earn a special status for its addiction recovery resources.
Now, the city has dropped that plan entirely.
By creating new recovery resources — like an addiction advisory council and recurring community destigmatization events — Beckley would have earned the international status of “inclusive recovery city,” joining 26 other cities around the world.
But on Tuesday, Beckley residents packed a meeting of the Beckley Common Council to express concerns over the plan.
Some said Mayor Rob Rappold had adopted the plans without first accepting public comments or seeking council approvals.
Others claimed the new resources would over-extend public resources and draw more homeless people to the city.
Mary West, a Beckley resident and former council candidate, expressed disapproval of the plans and homelessness in the city.
There are “all these homeless people that I see walking through here, and they’re in front of my house, throwing backpacks in my yard with drugs,” she said.
During the council meeting, Rappold said he was surprised to hear the plans had garnered any backlash, maintaining that they would benefit the local community.
But on Thursday he dropped the project entirely, echoing national trends.
Resident concerns over homelessness and drug use have delayed rehab centers in the Bronx, Boston and North Carolina, blocking rehab expansions as overdoses rise nationally. For years, West Virginia has had more overdose deaths than any other state.
James Phillips, the local addiction recovery advocate who spearheaded the project, declined to comment on this story, and referred West Virginia Public Broadcasting to a Wednesday press release.
“The purpose of an inclusive recovery city is not to establish a sanctuary city or initiate a radical shift in approach,” he said in the press release. “It is not a program designed to attract or increase any capacity, and it requires no city funding, assets or grants to implement.”
In response to community concerns, Phillips will host a presentation and community discussion on the plans March 19 at 9:30 a.m. at 410 Neville Street in Beckley.
Phillips said that the project aimed to bolster support for residents experiencing addiction, and “walk aside them, offering hope [and] encouragement.”
The City of Beckley is an underwriter of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
A bill to legalize drug test strips was signed into law by Governor Jim Justice Friday.
A bill to legalize drug test strips was signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice Friday.
A drug test strip is a small strip of paper that can detect the presence of cutting agents, like fentanyl, in all different kinds of drugs.
Under previous state code, drug testing strips were considered drug paraphernalia. This means someone who was found in possession of drugs could have been additionally charged for possession of drug paraphernalia if they had drug testing strips.
Senate Bill 269 removes drug testing strips from the state’s list of drug paraphernalia.
Lawmakers passed a similar bill in 2022, exempting testing strips that detect fentanyl from that statute. House Bill 4373 went into effect in June of that year.
Illicit drug users can use test trips to verify their drugs aren’t contaminated with something else more lethal like fentanyl or xylazine.
Proponents of the bill like Iris Sidikman (they/them), harm reduction program director for the Women’s Health Center, say it could save lives.
They said while the fentanyl testing strips have been useful, the newest cutting agent, xylazine – or tranq – is the most requested test strip. Under current state law, it would be illegal for the clinic to distribute xylazine tests.
“The most immediate thing that this legislation would allow is for us to distribute xylazine test strips, which many people have asked me about here at the clinic as part of our Harm Reduction Program, people are interested in them.
Sen. Eric Tarr, a Putnam-R, was the only lawmaker to vote against Senate Bill 269. He said he wants West Virginia to be the last place someone would want to use or sell drugs.
“West Virginia ought to be the absolute worst place in the country to be involved in the drug industry, illicit drug industry,” Tarr said. “This should be the absolute last place in the world do you want to come to do drugs, sell drugs, be busted for drugs. And frankly, for rehab, because our rehab has been an abysmal failure.”
According to a June 2023 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2021, the highest rate of drug overdose deaths involving xylazine occurred in Region 3, which includes West Virginia.
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.
When it comes to decoding the language of the drug epidemic, advocates say compassionate language plays a crucial part in discussing the drug epidemic.
When it comes to decoding the language of the drug epidemic, advocates say using compassionate language is vital when speaking with the people behind the numbers.
This language is also medically accurate, as clinicians’ diagnostic manuals have changed.
“In behavioral health disorders there is, for the past several decades, there has been something called the DSM,” said Michael Haney, director of addiction treatment center PROACT, based in Huntington. “It’s the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of psychiatric disorders, and there used to be a delineation between abuse and dependence which I think is where the whole idea of addiction dependence got confused because abuse is someone that was a problem user, but it hadn’t gotten to the point where they were truly considered as having a disease or sick.”
In 2013, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM 5 was released, removing terms like substance abuse for a more simple term.
“It’s simply use disorder,” Haney said. “And it’s like alcohol use disorder, mild alcohol use disorder, moderate or alcohol use disorder severe. And that really just depends on how much of an impact it’s having on you.”
Laura Lander has lived in West Virginia for nearly 20 years and watched the trajectory of the drug epidemic from a social work perspective as an associate professor at West Virginia University’s (WVU) Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry.
“And now, it’s really a kind of on a continuum,” Lander said. “So people have mild, moderate, or severe substance use disorder. So that’s the diagnosis. So addiction is really an umbrella term, which is not a diagnostic term, is really more of a descriptive colloquial term that we use.”
Lyn O’Connell, associate director for the Division of Addiction Sciences at Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, said avoiding derogatory terms and judgemental labels and instead employing person-first language can increase empathy and reinforce the idea that people are experiencing a health issue rather than a moral failing.
“One of the other reasons it matters is because, and we don’t use this term, but if we refer to someone as an addict, we don’t want to use that term, because it’s not person-centered, and it really dehumanizes the individual,” O’Connell said. “So we want to talk about a person with a substance use disorder because they are still a person. And so we want to refer to that person-centered language. The reason for doing that is also to try and reduce stigma to remind people that there is a person in the conversation.”
O’Connell said that with the understanding that language shapes perception and attitudes, adopting an empathetic approach can pave the way for more effective support systems and treatments.
“And although people might say, ‘well, that’s not going to change how someone enters treatment,’ it absolutely does. How we refer to programs, how we refer to people, how we talk about issues definitely impact our willingness to have treatment,” O’Connell said. “There’s no better example other than probably a needle exchange versus a harm reduction program.”
According to O’Connell, compassionate language not only benefits those directly affected by substance use disorder but also promotes a more inclusive dialogue among policymakers, health care professionals and the general public.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t done enough to combat that first piece of language, but we really want to make sure that, that terminology has impacted our willingness to treat people or provide funding or to legislate this overall,” O’Connell said.
Lander said using compassionate language doesn’t minimize the severity of the drug epidemic but rather acknowledges the humanity and inherent worth of every individual impacted by it. And it has practical applications as well.
“Previously, we had found there was a stigma around patients receiving Narcan,” Lander said. “Even though there was a state order in place that people did not need a prescription to receive it. It was hard for them to get it from the pharmacies. And now we have distributed so much free Narcan and it’s almost become like a household item, which on the one hand, you can think of as sad. On the other hand, you can think of as what an amazing thing we have done to really de-stigmatize a rescue medication, which allows people to live long enough to hopefully get into treatment and into recovery.”
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.
A fourth Fruits of Labor Cafe and Bakery will open later in August in Beckley. The company formalized a program focused on helping employers create workspaces that are recovery friendly.
A fourth Fruits of Labor Cafe and Bakery will open later in August in Beckley. The company formalized a program focused on helping employers create work spaces that are recovery friendly.
The program is called Communities of Healing. It was started by Fruits of Labor owner Tammy Jordan, as a way for her business to employ and support people in recovery.
The Communities of Healing project brings in partners like West Virginia Hive Network to share the program with other businesses in the region.
Judy Moore, deputy director of operations at the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority and president of Country Roads Angel Network, said in addition to helping navigate people through recovery, the Communities of Healing Program is also helping the economy.
“It is a deep need, especially for southern West Virginia,” Moore said. “We have a true workforce problem. And we have found that, embedded within that is this opioid issue. And in order to break down the issues surrounding the workforce, this is a big problem that we have to tackle.”
The West Virginia Hive is a business hub that works to help businesses succeed.
In addition to helping businesses learn how to hire and support people in recovery, the Communities of Healing program is addressing the stigma surrounding drug abuse.
And Moore said, it takes more than a willing heart.
“That’s where it has to start,” Moore said. “They have to have passion. They need to understand that they’re working with individuals that have been through a lot, and they are really restarting. The businesses have to have patience. It’s so very important that the businesses go through this program and learn about all of those resources and tools and skills that they truly need to make this successful.”
This is the second year businesses can apply for acceptance into the Communities of Healing program. To date, 24 businesses have graduated from the program. The fourth cohort of nine businesses just began. The initiative has been funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission.
More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, setting another tragic record in the nation's escalating overdose epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Wednesday.
More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, setting another tragic record in the nation’s escalating overdose epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Wednesday.
The provisional 2021 total translates to roughly one U.S. overdose death every 5 minutes. It marked a 15% increase from the previous record, set the year before. The CDC reviews death certificates and then makes an estimate to account for delayed and incomplete reporting.
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, called the latest numbers “truly staggering.”
The White House issued a statement calling the accelerating pace of overdose deaths “unacceptable” and promoting its recently announced national drug control strategy. It calls for measures like connecting more people to treatment, disrupting drug trafficking and expanding access to the overdose-reversing medication naloxone.
U.S. overdose deaths have risen most years for more than two decades. The increase began in the 1990s with overdoses involving opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths led by other opioids like heroin and — most recently — illicit fentanyl.
Last year, overdoses involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids surpassed 71,000, up 23% from the year before. There also was a 23% increase in deaths involving cocaine and a 34% increase in deaths involving meth and other stimulants.
Overdose deaths are often attributed to more than one drug. Some people take multiple drugs and inexpensive fentanyl has been increasingly cut into other drugs, often without the buyers’ knowledge, officials say.
“The net effect is that we have many more people, including those who use drugs occasionally and even adolescents, exposed to these potent substances that can cause someone to overdose even with a relatively small exposure,” Volkow said in a statement.
Experts say the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem as lockdowns and other restrictions isolated those with drug addictions and made treatment harder to get.
Overdose death trends are geographically uneven. Alaska saw a 75% increase in 2021 — the largest jump of any state. In Hawaii, overdose deaths fell by 2%.
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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
A Hepatitis A outbreak growing in the Louisville area since last summer reached a new peak recently with a travel advisory from Indiana health officials. They told Hoosiers heading to Kentucky to get a Hep A vaccine.
Soon, Kentucky’s Acting Commissioner for Public Health Dr. Jeffrey Howard was pushing back.
“Let me say that it is safe to travel to Kentucky, and it is safe to attend the Kentucky Derby,” Howard said via the state’s official YouTube channel.
Kentucky Acting Public Health Commissioner Jeffrey Howard. Credit Still from KY Health Dept. video
What had looked like an isolated rash of cases in a few Kentucky counties has now become a multi-state, regional outbreak, with nearly 500 cases in four states and the numbers rising daily.. As with recent clusters of cases of HIV and elevated risk of Hepatitis C, this latest outbreak of Hep A is also closely linked to the region’s addiction crisis.
The immediacy and tragedy of overdose deaths in the Ohio Valley have overshadowed the risks of infections linked to the opioid epidemic. But with this latest outbreak, it’s clear that disease has joined overdoses as yet another public health threat from the addiction crisis.
Rapid Spread
West Virginia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Rahul Gupta said quick action is crucial. West Virginia declared an outbreak when 20 cases appeared in two counties. Usually, he said, the state’s total number of cases in a year will remain in the single digits.
“One of the things we understand in public health is when we have an outbreak of disease you can certainly accumulate a number of people having that disease very quickly,” Gupta said.
Credit Ashton Marra / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Dr. Rahul Gupta is Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health in West Virginia, which has the nation’s highest overdose death rate.
In every affected state in the region the rates of infection are well above the norm. Ohio, which has about four dozen cases, has not declared an outbreak. But Ohio’s cases in the last four months already exceed the state’s total cases from last year.
Kentucky has reported more than 370 cases since first declaring an outbreak last summer. In previous years, the annual average had been about 20 cases.
Drug Connection
Another unusual factor in this Hep A outbreak is that drug users are at the core. Usually, Hep A outbreaks are caused by ingesting food contaminated with fecal matter. That often means the food is contaminated where it is grown or that a food service worker unwittingly passes on the disease through a restaurant.
But this outbreak is different, as Gupta explained.
“Individuals who may have substance use disorder and may be using illicit drugs may also not be able to keep up personal hygiene,” he said, “which puts them at higher risk for being infected with Hepatitis A.”
Howard, in Kentucky, said the Centers for Disease Control is tracking Hep A outbreaks in five states that show this unusual transmission. That means Hep A now joins overdose, Hep C and HIV as health threats linked to the addiction crisis. And monitoring and treatment efforts are complicated by the regional nature of the infection.
“The biggest challenge we face is when outbreaks cross state lines,” he said. He pointed to an ongoing investigation of a cluster of HIV cases in northern Kentucky, which includes many commuter communities tie to Cincinnati. That outbreak is also linked to needle drug use. “For the first time in the history of Kentucky, we had HIV transmission with the most common risk factor being intravenous drug use,” he said.
He also predicts more outbreaks linked to the addiction crisis.
“We will see more and more outbreaks in the upcoming months and years,” he said.
Gupta said death is relatively rare from Hep A. But the illness can be severe and last for several weeks. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, dark urine, jaundice, clay-colored bowel movements and joint pain.
Hopeful Signs
There are some hopeful signs. First, the best prevention is a good hand wash with soap and water. Second, there is a Hep A vaccine. Since the vaccine first became available in 1995, U.S. cases of Hep A have declined by more than 95 percent.
The CDC targets vaccine supplies to highest risk areas and said that manufacturers are keeping pace with demand, although the agency is monitoring the supply situation. All regional health officials the ReSource contacted said vaccine supplies are adequate.
Credit Wikimedia Commons / User: Kallerna
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The CDC says Hepatitis A vaccines are in good supply.
Dr. James Gaskell is the health commissioner at the Athens City-County Health Department in Ohio. He said as outbreaks recently emerged he had his staff check the available supply.
Gaskell is confident an outbreak can be contained. But he said there are constant barriers to treatment in rural areas, barriers complicated by an increase in any infectious disease.
“Communication is a problem in Appalachia sometimes, even in today’s world,” he said.
Dr. Kraig Humbaugh is the Fayette County, Kentucky, Health Commissioner and previously served as Kentucky’s chief epidemiologist. He said it is tough to know the real magnitude of any outbreak.
“That’s true with almost any type of epidemic,” he said. “There’s always a certain percentage of cases that are hidden or they don’t get recognized.”
For example, a 2016 outbreak linked to imported foods caused reported cases of Hep A in the U.S. to rise 45 percent to about 2,000 cases. After adjusting for under-reporting, the CDC estimated the actual number of new infections in 2016 was closer to 4,000.
Humbaugh said the current outbreak will bring more attention focused on the region’s related health woes, and that could lead to more federal help.
“Unfortunately, there is a human cost and a financial cost, but it seems that we are getting more attention.”
Those costs, he said, will likely grow as the addiction crisis gives rise to more infectious disease outbreaks through the Ohio Valley.
ReSource reporter Aaron Payne contributed to this report.
