Struggling to cope with an escalating toll of illegal drug overdoses and deaths, the city of Huntington has formed a broad-based coalition of local leaders to attack the problem. Spearheaded by Mayor Steve Williams, the coalition is pursuing a number of different approaches aimed at the drug menace.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., joined Williams and a dozen public officials, law enforcement figures, drug treatment providers and community advocates at Huntington City Hall for a Jan. 8 roundtable discussion of Huntington’s drug problem and the city’s effort to deal with it.
Lauding the city for its willingness to face its problem and its aggressive, multi-faceted approach, Capito said its effort could well serve as a “model” for other communities in West Virginia and elsewhere. “We are going to lose an entire generation” if the drug threat is not brought under control, she said.
According to statistics compiled by Jim Johnson, director of the Mayor’s Office of Drug Control Policy, 2015 saw at least 944 drug overdoses in Cabell County. That’s up from 774 overdoses in 2014. Seventy of those 2015 overdoses resulted in death. That’s up from 58 deaths in 2014.
The increase in overdoses and deaths is a direct result of “a deadly resurgence of heroin addiction,” Johnson said. He credited police with doing a good job in reducing the supply of illegal drugs available in Huntington but “we have to reduce the demand.”
Two successful anti-drug initiatives launched in Huntington are a drug court and a needle exchange conducted by the Cabell Huntington Health Department.
Cabell County Family Court Judge Patricia Keller told the City Hall session that the county’s drug court has added a new program for women arrested for felony prostitution who are involved in prostitution to support a drug habit. The one-year program offers the women domestic abuse counseling, family planning courses and trauma treatment.
Dr. Michael Kilkeeny, the Health Department’s medical director, said the department’s needle change program has had an enormous response, attracting more than 650 addicts since its recent launch. Kilkeeny noted that, in contrast, a similar program in Pittsburgh saw only 650 addicts take part in a year. He said the program here needs to expand to locations beyond the Health Department office.
Pastor Ford Price of Central United Methodist told Kilkenny that his church would be willing to open its doors for a similar needle exchange. Many people in the “faith community” are asking what they can do to help counter the drug problem, Price said.
The session heard presentations from two private efforts aimed at coping with the Huntington drug problem.
Matt Boggs of Recovery Point of Huntington noted that it operates the state’s largest residential drug treatment facility for men, has recently expanded to Bluefield and soon will open a residential location for women on Charleston’s West Side.
Rebecca Crowder, director of Lily’s Place, which treats drug-addicted infants, said the center has had a highly successful first year but voiced concern that many addicted babies are going undetected because hospitals don’t have prenatal drug testing. And too often, Crowder said, previously addicted babies are being sent home from the center with mothers who still are addicted. More needs to be done for those mothers, she said.
Dr. Kevin Yingling, dean of the Marshall University School of Pharmacy, told the session that Naloxone, a highly effective tool in the treatment of overdose victims, needs to be made more widely available to the public.