Friday, February 17, 2012
Public to Weigh in on West Virginia Drug Abuse Bill
West Virginia lawmakers hope to hear from doctors, law enforcement and others about Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s proposal targeting drug abuse.
Tomblin’s measure takes aim at substance abuse.
It proposes increased oversight of clinics that provide methadone and prescriptions for powerful painkillers.
It also would speed up one tracking system for pain pill prescriptions, and create a new system to track meth ingredients.
The legislation borrows from Ohio and Florida laws credited for shutting down so-called pill mills. But it also draws from Kentucky anti-meth program that officials there say isn’t working.
Among other troubling figures, West Virginia has the nation’s highest per capita drug overdose death rate.
Judges, recovering drug addicts, parents of addicts and social workers all made impassioned pleas at a legislative public hearing Thursday evening for more spending on drug treatment facilities in West Virginia
“I’ve just left a woman who is eight months pregnant, she’s addicted to oxycontin and opiates and so is the baby and I don’t have a facility to put her in,“ Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Bailey.
West Virginia has the highest per capita rate of death from drugs, according to House Health and Human Resources Committee Chairman Don Perdue, who chaired the hearing in the House of Delegates Chamber.
Perdue’s statistics show that the number of accidental deaths from overdoses increased four-fold form 2001 to 2008. Additionally, 85 percent of the state’s prisoners are in jail directly or indirectly because of substance abuse.
Officials testified Thursday that they overrun with drug cases and the shortage of treatment facilities is at the critical stage.
Taylor County Judge Alan Moats said he feels helpless when he sees the same offenders over and over, but has no recourse but to send them to jail because of a shortage of treatment facilities.
“It’s frustrating that we can’t do anything about it… we’ve tried everything possible,“ Moats said. “We don’t have the treatment facilities to put people and we just have a revolving door coming back, back and back.“
Moats called the situation “heartbreaking.“
The committee heard from several recovering addicts, including James Brammer. He said he was “a dead man walking” until he got help at the Samaritan Inn treatment center.
“Hell, without the Samaritan Inn I wouldn’t be here now,“ Brammer said. “By God, I’m not gettin’ high today.“
Living • Health • Politics | Government | Election • State-WV • Permalink
Print This Article
The message should be much more important than the messenger but still people just don’t read or take the responsibility of independent thinking. It seems more important to know who said it, to be on the “right” side. I don’t like bullies. I don’t care for people telling others what they should and should not say or how to say it. That’s my right, my opinion. Don’t have any problem signing my name to this but for now I’ll just use…
To Not Me,