Tag: Overdose Deaths

Over 900 Drug-Related Overdoses in Cabell County in 2015

  Officials say more than 900 drug-related overdoses were reported in Cabell County in 2015.

Director of the Mayor’s Office of Drug Control Policy Jim Johnson tells The Herald-Dispatch, that of those reported, 70 resulted in death.

Officials say the number of reported drug overdoses in 2015 was greater than the total number of overdoses from 2012 to 2014 combined. There were 272 overdoses in 2014.

The region has been battling an increase in heroin-related overdose deaths since the mid- to late-2000s.

Johnson says his office will continue looking for solutions.

The harm reduction program, run by the Cabell-Huntington Health Department, was started in 2015. It includes the syringe exchange, which is aimed at keeping users healthy and preventing the spread of Hepatitis C and other diseases.

Federal Partnership Will Fund Southern W.Va. Naloxone Pilot

A federal grant will make a lifesaving drug available to State Troopers in three southern West Virginia counties.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia Booth Goodwin announced the $100,000 grant in Princeton Wednesday.

The money comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and will help start a pilot program to train State Troopers in Mercer, McDowell and Wyoming Counties to administer Naloxone.

Naloxone is an opioid antagonist- a drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose and with additional medical treatment, can save a person’s life.

West Virginia has one of the highest rates of overdose deaths in the nation.

“That’s why it’s so critical for us to have tools like Naloxone freely available to law enforcement who very well could be the first responder on the scene and very likely save a life,” Goodwin said.

West Virginia lawmakers passed a bill during the 2015 legislative session to make Naloxone available to all law enforcement officers as well as friends and family members of addicts. That bill, however, did not provide funding for the medication.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

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