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Addiction

Treatment facilities still offering help

Once the numbers are in, perhaps in a year or so, it will not be surprising if COVID-19 was not the big killer of West Virginians during at least the first few weeks of this month.

Thus far during the coronavirus epidemic, COVID-19 has killed three Mountain State residents. No doubt the death toll will increase.

Will it reach 856? We hope and pray not, of course. But the figure is significant: It is the number of West Virginians killed by drug overdoses in 2018, the most recent year for which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has statistics.

It has been reported that though drug addiction treatment facilities remain open, the number of people seeking help there has dropped off. “Ever since the coronavirus, nobody’s really calling. Everybody’s calls dropped off,” a reporter was told by Martha Polinsky, who is care coordinator of the BreakThru medical managed withdrawal program at WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital in Glen Dale.

“Addiction doesn’t stop just because there’s a global pandemic,” Polinsky remarked.

No, it does not. Year in and year out, it remains a deadly scourge in both West Virginia and Ohio (where there were 3,980 overdose deaths in 2018).

If you are addicted to drugs, we urge you not to allow COVID-19 to prevent you from getting help. If you know someone with a dependency, encourage that person to tackle recovery now.

Think about it this way: You will need professional help if you are addicted. That will involve health care professionals — who are likely to be just the people you want to be around, or at least in contact with, if the coronavirus strikes you.

Don’t let COVID-19 be the reason — or the excuse — why you don’t get help with a problem more dangerous to you in many ways than the coronavirus epidemic.

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