By Taylor Stuck The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.VA. — The past decade ushered in a new era of drug use and addiction in West Virginia.
Following a drop in overdose deaths in 2009, West Virginia started the decade with more than 400 opioid-related overdose deaths, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Other than a slight dip from 2011 to 2012, overdose deaths have been increasing in the Mountain State ever since.
West Virginia has not sat idly while the death toll of opioids and substance use disorder rises. Led by the action of cities like Huntington that have developed innovative solutions to the problem, the past decade has seen more policy, funding and programming aimed at relieving a situation that impacts all areas of the state.
“We’ve done a lot, but we have a lot left to do,” said Dr. Matt Rohrbach, R-Cabell, majority chair of the House of Delegates Committee for the Treatment and Prevention of Substance Abuse. …
