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Opioid epidemic to draw Obama to Charleston

Charleston Gazette-Mail file photo by The Associated Press President Obama will come to Charleston next week to meet with community members who have been affected by the problems associated with the misuse of opioids, including prescription drugs and heroin. The event will mark Obama’s third trip to West Virginia as president.
Charleston Gazette-Mail file photo by The Associated Press
President Obama will come to Charleston next week to meet with community members who have been affected by the problems associated with the misuse of opioids, including prescription drugs and heroin. The event will mark Obama’s third trip to West Virginia as president.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Obama will travel to Charleston next week to hold a community discussion on the prescription drug and heroin epidemics that have gripped West Virginia and the rest of the nation.

During the forum, to be held Wednesday, Obama will meet with an audience of educators, medical professionals, law enforcement officers and others who have been affected by the wave of drug abuse.

“Communities in West Virginia and in states across the country have been developing and implementing responses that involve all sectors of their communities,” said Keith Maley, a White House spokesman. “The president hopes to discuss local, state and federal efforts, as well as private-sector initiatives with those who are addressing the epidemic on a daily basis.”

Further details about the president’s trip to Charleston — time and location, for instance — will be available in the coming days, Maley said.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail is soliciting reader questions about the drug abuse epidemic. The newspaper will provide several of the questions to the president.

Drug overdoses have recently surpassed traffic crashes as the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. More than half of those deaths have come from prescription drugs.

The problem is particularly acute in the Mountain State…

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