×

Outgunned

W.Va. not equipped to handle war on abuse

West Virginia is woefully outgunned in the war against substance abuse. Though some of the very best minds in our state are working hard to find better ways to reduce the toll narcotics are taking on us, there are not enough of them.

Twenty-one percent of our counties do not have a single counselor equipped to help victims of drug addiction. While the nation as a whole has about 112 counselors per 100,000 population, the rate in West Virginia is about 40.7.

That is a shortage of more than 1,400 just to get up to the national average — in a state with the highest opioid overdose death rate in the country, by far.

Helping us get back in the fight has become a priority at West Virginia University, as we reported this week. There, important work on everything from training more counselors to finding ways to use neuroscience against substance disorders is in progress.

But, as journalists attending a daylong presentation at WVU learned, substance abuse is a vicious cycle. Its effects on our economy in many ways have made us less able to afford the weapons we need to win the war.

Last year, 818 people died of drug overdoses in West Virginia. It appears the toll will be even greater this year. As Marc Haut, professor and chair of the Department of Behavioral Medicine ahd Psychiatry at WVU’S School of Medicine, noted, “This hasn’t peaked yet.”

Turning the tide will require a unified, objective, intensive campaign. Even a bare-bones outline of what is needed would require writing a book about the subject. Some have done just that.

For now, however, let us focus on one aspect, getting victims of substance abuse the help they need.

Clearly, more counselors — if not experts, at least men and women with some knowledge of how to help — are needed desperately. WVU and some other institutions of higher learning have implemented new training programs or plan to do so to provide more counselors.

That is something every college and university in West Virginia should be doing.

That is easier said than accomplished. The mechanics of establishing new programs in higher education are complicated, time-consuming and expensive before a single person can be enrolled.

We don’t have time for that. At individual institutions, state and national accrediting entities and in government, cutting some of the bureaucratic red tape could shave months off the process of getting a counseling program up and running.

The process needs to be streamlined immediately.

Higher education programs are expensive. Both state and federal governments should provide emergency funding for colleges and universities with initiatives to train drug counselors and drug law enforcement personnel.

Students should be encouraged to go into the fields, perhaps through scholarships and/or loan forgiveness programs.

Again, providing more people able to help substance abuse victims is but one aspect of the challenge. There are many others.

Unless we in West Virginia put ourselves on a wartime footing in this conflict, we will be defeated.

Are we over-dramatizing the situation? Consider this: The Vietnam War, stretching over more than a decade, claimed the lives of 733 Mountain State residents.

That is 85 fewer than died of overdoses last year.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $3.92/week.

Subscribe Today