ERADICATING DRUG PROBLEMS IN HARRISON COUNTY

According to a 2017 DEA Intelligence Report, "CDC data indicate that 725 people died of drug overdoses in West Virginia in 2015, more than double the number who died from car accidents."

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"Preliminary data from the West Virginia Heath Statistics Center shows that in 2019, more than 880 people died in association with drug misuse (including prescription and illicit drugs) with a rate of 52.8 per 100,000 population. This is nearly two and a half times the national average," according to the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy Prescription Opioid Indicators Report.

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Allen Sigler wrote, "In 2016, when U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy labeled the opioid epidemic as one of the country’s most urgent health problems, West Virginia led country in per-capita drug overdose deaths. That year, 892 people in the state died from drugs. Over the next three years, deaths fluctuated some but remained near or under 1,000. Then, in 2020, the body count ballooned. By the end of that year, the CDC estimated 1,330 West Virginians had died as a result of drug overdoses. The figure continued to grow in 2021 to more than 1,500 and has only returned under that threshold recently.'"

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I am passionate about helping those who suffer from drug addiction find recovery and hope.  I also believe in enforcing the laws and stopping drug trafficking.  I understand that law enforcement cannot eradicate the drug problems in Harrison County alone.  I plan to collaborate with experts, recovery ministries, and treatment facilities in order to see Harrison County make progress to combat the drug epidemic.