In 2022, the units disrupted the sale of more than $100 million of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine.
U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld has been appointed chair of the Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) executive board.
That board supports 43 drug task forces in West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. In addition to drug seizures, they also bolster treatment and prevention efforts.
In 2022, the units disrupted the sale of more than $100 million of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Ihlenfeld, the U.S. attorney for the northern district of West Virginia, said he’d work to strengthen the response to the threat of Mexican drug cartels.
Ihlenfeld previously served as chair of the Appalachian High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. That includes parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
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 federal drug trafficking investigation in West Virginia has resulted in charges against 54 people and the seizure of more than 200 pounds (91 kilograms) of methamphetamine, authorities said Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney Will Thompson said law enforcement also seized lesser amounts of cocaine and fentanyl along with 18 firearms and $747,000 in cash.
“The takedown of this drug trafficking organization stopped a record amount of methamphetamine, as well as other dangerous drugs, from reaching our communities and causing harm,” Thompson said. “This investigation demonstrates that we will use all of our resources, including new and innovative investigative techniques, against those who target our communities with this poison. Our law enforcement partners worked tirelessly to dismantle this organization and obtain these indictments, and I commend their outstanding work and dedication.”
Thompson said 30 of the suspects were indicted by a federal grand jury and the others are charged in state criminal complaints. Most of the suspects in the federal cases are Charleston residents. Two are from Detroit and one is from Waynesboro, Virginia.
Thompson called it the largest seizure of methamphetamine ever in West Virginia.
The investigation was part of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The program was established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multilevel attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and is the keystone of the Department of Justice’s drug reduction strategy. OCDETF combines the resources and expertise of its member federal agencies in cooperation with state and local law enforcement. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking organizations, transnational criminal organizations and money laundering organizations that present a significant threat to the public safety, economic, or national security of the United States.
Alarmed by a deadly new twist in the nation’s drug addiction crisis, the government will allow states to use federal money earmarked for the opioid epidemic to help growing numbers of people struggling with meth and cocaine.
The little-noticed change is buried in a massive spending bill passed by Congress late last year. Pressed by constituents and state officials, lawmakers of both parties and the Trump administration agreed to broaden the scope of a $1.5 billion grant program previously restricted to the opioid crisis. Starting this year states can also use those federal dollars to counter addiction to “stimulants,” a term the government uses for methamphetamine and cocaine.
“Meth and cocaine are making a comeback and they are more potent than they were during the last wave,” said Mark Stringer, director of Missouri’s Department of Mental Health. He oversees the state’s efforts to prevent addiction, get drug-dependent people into treatment, and support them in recovery. “Where meth is much more prevalent than opioids, this will be a game-changer.”
About 68,000 people died of drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2018, with opioids involved in about two-thirds of the cases. Opioids are a drug class that includes fentanyl, heroin, certain prescription painkillers, and various chemical combinations concocted for street sales. But the national numbers also hide dramatic differences in the deadliest drugs across the land.
In most states west of the Mississippi meth is the biggest killer, according to government data for 2017. Meanwhile, the highly lethal opioid fentanyl maintains its grip on the East and Midwest. Cocaine ranks third overall nationally in drug-involved deaths.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., whose state has been hard-hit by the opioid epidemic, said she was hearing from all quarters last year that the drug-addiction scourge is gradually changing.
“They were seeing much more impact from meth and from cocaine, substances they couldn’t address because of specific language in the law,” said Shaheen, referring to previous restrictions in the federal grant program aimed at opioids.
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which writes spending bills, Shaheen said she worked with Republican and Democratic leaders to add “stimulants” — not only opioids — to the language of the 2020 spending bill.
White House drug czar James W. Carroll said the Trump administration was also hearing calls for more flexibility from state officials, and supported the change.
“I know the term ‘opioid crisis’ is used a lot, and it’s not my preferred way of describing what we’re up against,” said Carroll. “I say what we really have is an addiction crisis.”
Other senators pushing to broaden the grant program included Republicans Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, also a member of the Appropriations Committee. Their states have been ravaged by opioids.
Federal lawmakers don’t want to be caught flat-footed if another drug crisis breaks out in an election year. The nation has been starting to see progress on opioids, with deaths declining slightly.
Last week the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to federal agencies requesting detailed information on evolving patterns of cocaine and meth use.
“We are concerned that while the nation, rightly so, is devoting so much of its attention and resources to the opioid epidemic, another epidemic — this one involving cocaine and methamphetamine — is on the rise,” wrote committee leaders Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J. and ranking Republican Greg Walden of Oregon.
Meth, which was once cooked in makeshift labs in the U.S., is now produced by Mexican cartels and smuggled across the border. The price of the drug has dropped even as its purity has risen.
The increased prevalence of cocaine is being driven by greater supply, as cultivation of the coca plant has become more widespread in Colombia. Cocaine can also be laced with fentanyl, contributing to overdose deaths. As with meth, government data show the price of cocaine has dropped while its purity has risen.
Treating people addicted to meth or cocaine is different from treating opioid dependence. There are FDA-approved medications for opioid addiction, but not for cocaine and meth.
Instead, treatment relies on counseling and support to try to help people overcome their drug habit. It’s a labor-intensive effort that carries a significant risk of failure. Access to more federal dollars will help pay for treatment, particularly in states that have held out on accepting Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Expanded Medicaid for low-income adults is a mainstay of treatment in states that embraced it.
States “are going to go ahead and apply for these grants, knowing they’ll have the flexibility to treat whatever the addiction is for people walking into their clinics,” said Reyna Taylor of the advocacy group National Council for Behavioral Health.
The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is preparing to notify states of the newly available grant flexibility.
Ultimately, state officials want Congress to consider folding the opioid money into a larger block grant program administered by the same agency, creating a big pool of federal money to treat addiction, with fewer restrictions on its use.
The small, southern West Virginia town of Kermit has had more than its fair share of national headlines regarding its struggle with the opioid crisis.
But few stories focus on the people themselves. Earlier this summer, we visited Kermit to ask residents how they think the town can reinvent itself.
We spoke with more than the four residents listed below, but a central theme in all of our conversations was “need.” Community leaders and residents all pointed to a need for more federal and state funding. A need for more local treatment options and compassion. A need for economic development, local employers, and education both in and outside of Kermit.
‘The Absence of Choices and Opportunities’
Sister Therese Carew has been living in Kermit for more than ten years now. She runs Christian Help, a public charity that provides food, donated clothing, free transportation and more to residents of Kermit and the rest of Mingo County.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Christian Help is a public charity in Kermit that provides free transportation, food, clothing and other resources to Mingo County residents.
Christian Help is located along the Tug River that separates West Virginia from Kentucky. It’s down the road from Town Hall, near a cluster of yard-sale-like setups, where people sell things like clothing and kids’ toys.
“This is pretty much always out,” Carew said of the for-sale stands earlier this summer. “Sometimes it really is their own stuff they’re selling, sometimes it’s stuff from Christian Help.”
Carew has come to know Kermit’s unincorporated communities better than most, just by driving people around. She and her staff give rides to many who live on the outskirts of the Kermit area, in neighborhoods leading up to the mountain.
The further from town you get, Carew said, the poorer structures begin to look. There are a few really nice houses, with well-maintained driveways and statues of gold lions at the entrance, but there’s even more mobile homes, and small wooden structures.
“There’s no zoning. So, the properties, you can have a $250,000 home like on this curve, and then across the street there could be a trailer,” she said.
A lot of the people Carew helps don’t have their own vehicles.
“I just took a man home up a gravel road up here I had never been on before, but he was walking with, like, eight bags of groceries in Warfield. It was ten o’clock in the morning and already 90 degrees, and he already looked like he was dying, trying to walk and carry his groceries. So, I just stopped and said, ‘I’m Sister Therese from Christian Help. Can I give you a ride?’”
It’s even harder to walk to some of the larger grocery stores and medical centers, which are located half an hour south by car in Williamson.
“It’s the absence of choices and opportunities,” Carew said. “When I was a kid, we could walk three blocks and get to the drug store in town, which was the pharmacy, but it also had cards and toiletries and stuff, kind of the ‘prelude’ to the minimart. And it had a candy counter, so you could get your ten cents allowance, and you could walk and go get your candy,” Carew said. “There’s no bowling alleys [here]. You haven’t seen a minimart to go buy a popsicle or a pop on a summer day, there’s just nothing.”
‘For Good or Bad, It’s Just Home’
etta_lea_kiser_web.mp3
Carew runs Christian Help in Kermit. But she doesn’t do it alone— she works with a staff of about eight people, including Etta Lea Kiser, a mother and a Kermit native.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Etta Lea Kiser, a Kermit resident, works with Sister Therese Carew at Christian Help in Kermit.
“It’s where I was raised,” Kiser said. “This will just always be home to me. Always. I guess for good or bad, it’s just home.”
About 20 years ago, Kiser developed an addiction to opioids. Most recently, she’s been in recovery for two years. As hard of a time as she’s had with substance use disorder and recovery in Kermit, she said she likes that her friends and neighbors know her, and know her story.
“I love the fact that it is a small community, because you kind of know everybody, and if you don’t know everybody you at least know a family member.”
A lot has changed since Kiser was a kid in Kermit. Businesses have left. Many of the coal jobs that supported families in the area are gone, and nothing has replaced them. More people are using more drugs.
“And it’s just sad,” Kiser said. “It’s just sad to watch people’s lives just being destroyed, and there’s no help.”
Kiser said she hopes to use her experiences with recovery to make a difference in her community. Earlier in the summer, she said she completed training to become a certified recovery coach, and she was in the process of becoming a licensed peer support specialist. That means she’ll be able to connect people dealing with substance use disorder to treatment options.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Etta Lea Kiser, a Kermit resident, works with Sister Therese Carew at Christian Help.
“For addicts to be able to talk and feel safe, and not judged, and trusted by a peer, that’s a safe space.”
According to Kiser, sharing her experience will bring awareness to the issue and encourage others to share their own stories.
“I have a daughter. And I want to show her that no matter what mistakes you make you can always, you can always start over,” she said tearfully. “No matter what, you can always start over.”
‘When You View Your Loved One’
joseph_mullins_web.mp3
Joseph Mullins is the director of the Mullins Family Funeral Home in Warfield, Kentucky. His is one of three nearby funeral homes serving families around the Kermit-Warfield area. He’s also a local minister and the former Martin County coroner.
“The age of people dying has been a lot younger than what you would anticipate,” Mullins said. “Not only due to the drug epidemic, but there have been a lot more deaths due to people not caring about their lives like they used to.”
His work now allows him to deal with the opioid crisis on a more personal level.
“To me, I think that when you view your loved one, it is very important to the family that you bring back to their remembrance not someone who had been sick, but someone who was healthy and had a lot of life to them, and someone who looks younger than they look now.”
But giving someone a respectful sendoff doesn’t mean you have to ignore the cause of death, Mullins said. Even if it was an overdose.
“A lot of families don’t like that idea. I guess because they’re thinking, well, they’re the reason they’re here, or whatever. And they want to shove things under the rug, a lot of times.”
In a community as small as his, news gets around fast. There’s no use in trying to hide or ignore an overdose, Mullins said, and acknowledging the reality might even save someone else’s life.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Joseph Mullins owns the Mullins Family Funeral Home in Warfield, Kentucky.
“It was sad when I would be called out on a coroner’s call, when they would call me and tell me what area to go to, and I would know the cause of death before I got there. It’s sad that you know an area that well, that you can judge what a person died from before you can get to them.
“I just think that with more education and teaching our people more about it, they wouldn’t be so quick to do what they’re doing.”
‘A Good Town, With a Lot of Good People’
ernie_chambers_web.mp3
Mullins isn’t the only one who deals with the day-to-day impacts of substance use disorder in his work. Back in Kermit, police chief Ernie Chambers said a new drug — meth — is taking over. And it’s bringing more crime.
“Times are changing. I won’t lie to you,” Chambers said. “Back in the day, when you had the opioid crisis, everywhere sold pills, they’d barter, they would do different things. It wasn’t so much breaking, entering and stealing. Now, it’s a little different.”
Even with the opioid crisis, Chambers said his work has never been too much for him or other local law enforcement to handle. But with methamphetamine-use growing more popular nationwide— Kermit included— he’s noticing more trouble.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
A ‘Welcome to Kermit’ sign advertises the local high school, Christian Help, A.B.L.E. Families and the Kermit Police Department.
“It’s readily available in just about every corner of this country, not just Kermit. So, it’s becoming a major problem. And I hate to say it, but it’s here to stay.”
From his work and his training, Chambers said there’s two major differences between opioids and meth— meth is cheaper, and it’s stronger.
“What people don’t understand is, usually, once you start taking that stuff, within a five-year period, if you continuously use it, it will kill you from the inside out.”
As the area’s meth use becomes worse and the opioid crisis isn’t exactly solved, Chambers said there’s a stronger need than ever for places to put people, other than jail. Ultimately, Chambers said he just wants to see people, and his town, get help.
“I don’t want this town to turn into another small-town U.S.A. that has a drug lord on another corner. And I work feverishly— I work two shifts every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday— to keep that from happening to this town.
“This is a good town, with a lot of good people that back law enforcement. This town is financially strapped, and … this town deserves, with the people that live here, the best law enforcement that money can get.”
New West Virginia health information shows drug overdose deaths have increased to more than 1,000 in a one-year period for the first time.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the West Virginia Health Statistics Center’s most recent data also shows 870 deaths involved an opioid. That’s about 86 percent of the 1,011 recorded so far for 2017. In 2016, 759 people out of 890 people suffered fatal opioid-related overdoses.
The 2017 numbers are not final.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources said preliminary 2018 data shows 498 fatal overdoses in the first six months in the state. The most recent numbers are from an Aug. 15 analysis.
Between 2016 and 2017, there was also more than a doubling both of deaths related to amphetamine and methamphetamine use.
