By Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON – Standing behind a sign that read “Reducing Overdose Deaths,” Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Wednesday that West Virginia has recorded the nation’s biggest reduction in overdose deaths, but there is still work to do.
Morrisey came to Mercer County and spoke at the Karen Preservati Center in Princeton about the success West Virginia is having against an addiction epidemic fueled by opioids and other drugs.
“I think there are a lot of great things going on in Mercer County and southern West Virginia,” he said. “And I want to make sure we’re all communicating and working together so that we can really achieve greatness for our state. I look around the room and I see a lot of friendly faces, people who are excited about what the future holds.
“And I have some good news today, and I’m especially glad to be here, because I certainly have been down in Mercer County and southern West Virginia quite frequently to talk about the drug epidemic over a long period of time. There’s probably no bigger issue that I worked on for a 12-year period. I used to spend hours every single day looking to change the direction that West Virginia was heading in.”