BLUEFIELD — Combating West Virginia’s drug epidemic and promoting economic development were two issues on the agenda Tuesday for a visiting senator.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. started her stop in Mercer County with a visit to a Naloxone training session at the Bluefield Rescue Squad. Naloxone is a medication used to help save victims of opioid drug abuse. Capito recently introduced the Co-prescribing Save Lives Act, which encourages physicians to co-prescribe a lifesaving drug along with opioid prescriptions.
Naloxone is being provided to rescue squads, fire departments and other first responders. Mercer, McDowell and Wyoming counties are among the counties hardest hit by the opioid drug epidemic, Capito said.
“This drug epidemic has left nobody untouched. “I fear we’re going to lose a whole generation to this.” Many addicts are in the 21- to 34-age range, a time when most people are striking out on their own to start careers and families, she added.
Heroin use is part of this epidemic. Capito said it has been estimated that 80 percent of addicts who use heroin started their habit with opioid medications. Opioid addiction cuts across every state and every socio-economic group.
Capito said one bill she is supporting would help bring overdose victims into contact with health care professionals who could help them combat their addiction. In many cases, addicts who recover from an overdose leave hospitals without seeking additional help.
Capito then visited the Center for Applied Research and Technology Inc. (CART) off Bluefield Avenue. Located in the former headquarters of the Bluefield Regional Transit Authority, the facility operated by the city of Bluefield provides space for manufacturing entrepreneurs.
During her visit, Capito operated a remote controlled lawnmower that the makers said could be used by wounded veterans, the elderly, and others for tasks such as mowing their lawns and snow removal.
“I’m just impressed by how the community has come together to utilize an elderly resource,” she said, adding that many young people were leaving the state to search for work. “We’ve got to create more jobs. With the downturn in the coal industry, we need to become creative and be entrepreneurs,” she said.