Three substance use disorder programs in West Virginia are receiving $1.6 million in funding from the state.
The funding was announced by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities.
The funding includes $700,000 for a 10-bed long-term residential treatment program for women in Brooke County, $594,000 for a six-bed short-term residential treatment program for women in Mercer County and $398,000 for a recovery residence for women in the Institute area of Kanawha County.
The state said the funding supports recommendations from the Governor’s Advisory Council on Substance Abuse.
West Virginia prison officials have tapped a career law enforcement officer to crack down on illegal drug smuggling.
Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety Secretary Jeff Sandy has named Jack Luikart as director of correctional substance abuse control.
The department says in a news release that Sandy will target drug smuggling into prisons, jails and juvenile facilities, help train correctional officers and staff on drug prevention and investigations, and work with high-risk juveniles and young adult inmates.
Luikart retired in February from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office after 30 years of law enforcement service. Luikart focused on drug crimes for much of that career.
The Division of Corrections, Regional Jail Authority and the Division of Juvenile Services operate 26 facilities housing nearly 11,000 adult inmates and about 280 juveniles.
The West Virginia House of Delegates has passed a bill that will encourage the creation of substance abuse treatment facilities in the state.
While lawmakers have considered several bills this session aimed at punishing drug traffickers and dealers, House Bill 2428 is about recovery. The bill would establish a special fund to collect donations from the public and any appropriations the Legislature can offer in the future to open more substance abuse treatment facilities.
Democratic Delegate Phil Isner from Randolph County spoke in favor of the bill. He says he’s glad the body got to vote on a bill like this, this session.
“We’ve spent a lot of time this session passing bills that will punish the dealers; the people that are bringing the drugs into our state, and I’ve sponsored, cosponsored, and voted for several of those bills, but I am so encouraged that we are now trying to attack this problem from the other side,” Isner said, “and that is to deal with the users that have got caught up in this, and every one of us probably has a friend or a family member that’s been there.”
The new fund would be called the Ryan Brown Addiction Prevention and Recovery Fund, named after a young man from Kanawha County who died of heroin addiction.
House Bill 2428 passed 99 to 0 and now heads to the Senate.
The number of beds available at state-run substance abuse treatment facilities would increase in drug-ravaged West Virginia under a bill passed Wednesday…
The number of beds available at state-run substance abuse treatment facilities would increase in drug-ravaged West Virginia under a bill passed Wednesday by the House.
The bill passed on a 99-0 vote. It now moves to the state Senate.
West Virginia currently has more than 1,100 treatment beds, but struggles to meet demand. The state has the nation’s highest drug overdose death rate by far, with 41.5 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to a national average of 16.3.
The measure would allow the Department of Health and Human Resources to build a new facility or enter into an agreement with a private entity.
Funding would come from settlements of multiple lawsuits that accused wholesale drug distributors of flooding the state with prescription pain pills. In one lawsuit, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health agreed in January to pay the state a combined $36 million.
The bill also allows for other funding sources.
A Charleston Gazette-Mail investigation found drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in six years, a period when 1,728 people statewide fatally overdosed.
A bill increasing penalties for drug traffickers was largely the focus of the House floor session Friday. The bill is part of the House leadership’s plans to crack down on people selling drugs in West Virginia to curb the substance abuse epidemic.
House Bill 2648 would increase the penalties for trafficking or manufacturing a controlled substance while in the presence of a minor, making it a felony. The bill carries a penalty of a three year prison term without the ability to receive parole.
The state Division of Corrections was asked to estimate the cost of the bill, but in the fiscal note, the division said they were unable to estimate how many new offenders would be sentenced. The division did say, however, that each new offender would cost the state about $28,000 per year.
The high cost was a concern for some lawmakers, including Delegate Larry Rowe, a Democrat from Kanawha County. Rowe says it’s unlikely most of the people convicted under the bill would be major drug traffickers, but addicts who need treatment.
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha.
“Every single day we’ve been in here, except the first few, we have had a bill to raise the penalties on a crime that already exists,” Rowe noted, “We’ve just got to stop doing it, and the economic argument’s very, very wise. We are spending a fortune on corrections; we are being ruined by the amounts of money we spend on corrections as crisis response, when we ought to be spending that same amount of money on prevention.”
Delegate Kelli Sobonya, a Republican from Cabell County, is one of the sponsors of the bill. She argued protecting children in the state, no matter the cost, is what’s important.
“We can talk about the cost of incarceration, but you know, we pass legislation and penalties for two reasons, to be used as a deterrent if it’s high enough, it can be a deterrent, hopefully, you know, people won’t do that behavior, but you know, most likely addicts, they’re gonna do it anyway, because they’re addicted. They make those bad decisions, because they do have an addiction,” Sobonya said, “But you know, for instances like this, I think, you know, that parents need to be held responsible for endangering their children.”
Delegate Mike Pushkin, a Democrat from Kanawha County, opposed the bill, because he says it does nothing to assist in the treatment of addiction, which is where lawmakers should be focused if they want to curb substance abuse in the state.
“These folks aren’t thinking in the long term. They’re not thinking about the penalty, they’re thinking about what’s right in front of ‘em,” Pushkin explained, “And, while I wish this bill, this legislation, would put an end to these stories that we’re hearing; I’m afraid that it will not, and what it will do is put a lot more people who could possibly benefit from treatment; it’s gonna give them longer sentences; not allow them to parole.”
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. John Shott, R-Mercer, House Judiciary Chair.
Several lawmakers questioned House Judiciary Chair John Shott about hypothetical situations that could come up should the bill take effect. Shott says while those situations may deserve consideration, the law allows local prosecutors some discretion.
“There’s always a hypothetical that pulls at your heartstring in these cases,” Shott noted, “There’s always a hypothetical, but those hypotheticals are based on the absolute worst case scenario. They’re based on an assumption that our prosecutors don’t deserve our trust, they’re based on the assumption that we don’t have any trust or confidence in the legal system to do the right thing, or the common sense and good judgement of our jurors to see through our situation, and do the proper result, or in our judges.”
After over an hour of debate, House Bill 2648 passed 85 to 12 and now moves onto the Senate for consideration.
A National Weather Service meteorologist called it a “1-in-1,000-year” storm. By the time it was over, 23 West Virginians were dead.
Flooding that ravaged the state in late June was voted the No. 1 news story in 2016 in West Virginia by Associated Press member newspapers and broadcasters.
The sentencing of former Massey CEO Don Blankenship and his subsequent appeal was voted second, and the state’s substance abuse epidemic was third.
The floods destroyed or damaged thousands of homes, businesses, roads and bridges; prompted a massive response from volunteers and organizations; and dominated headlines for months. President Barack Obama issued a disaster declaration for a dozen counties.
“The June 2016 floods were a natural disaster of the magnitude that many West Virginians had never witnessed before,” said Lauren McGill, metro editor at The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington. “The number of deaths and the extent of the destruction caused by the flooding shocked the entire state, and will not be soon forgotten.”
Leslie Rubin, a reporter at WCHS-TV in Charleston, said the flooding “was something unlike anything I had ever seen. There were countless stories of hope and help that showed what it really means to be a West Virginian. On the other end of that, it is still painful to see the effects of the flood that will forever leave a mark on our state.”
West Virginia’s ongoing struggles with substance abuse also received votes.
But the story line finished just shy of overtaking Blankenship, who is serving a one-year sentence after being convicted of misdemeanor conspiracy for what prosecutors called a series of willful safety violations before the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 men. Before his appeal was heard in October, Blankenship released a manifesto from prison declaring himself a political prisoner.
Among the substance abuse stories this year included the heroin overdoses of more than two dozen people in a five-hour span in Huntington in August. Two people died. Elected leaders, communities, and health- and faith-based groups are seeking ways to end the scourge of drug addiction.
“The substance abuse issue is one that impacts every state resident, in every county and from every demographic category,” said John McCabe, managing editor of The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register. “It’s ripping families apart, leaving children to be raised by grandparents, or, worse, in the foster care system. This is one of our defining issues at this time, and as a community, we need to tackle it head-on.”
Rounding out West Virginia’s top 10 stories were:
— Greenbrier resort owner Jim Justice, a Democrat, is elected governor over Republican Bill Cole.
— West Virginia voters overwhelmingly choose Republican Donald Trump for president over Hillary Clinton. Trump’s win nationally gives hope to coal communities that have seen economic downturns in recent decades.
— A January blizzard dumps 42 inches of snow in parts of West Virginia.
— Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, daughter of Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, is grilled on Capitol Hill about the sky-high price of lifesaving EpiPens and the profits for her company.
— After months of stalled negotiations on balancing the state budget, lawmakers in mid-June opt to bank on higher taxes on cigarettes, e-cigarettes and other tobacco products to raise about $98 million a year.
— Buoyed by Trump’s popularity, Republicans maintain their control of West Virginia’s Legislature, while the GOP wins four of the six statewide offices.
— Coal companies including Alpha Natural Resources and Blackhawk Mining announce the additional layoffs of hundreds of miners in West Virginia as the industry’s downtown continues.
