A Gazette editorial from the Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — What if West Virginia decided to become the go-to place for addiction treatment, research and recovery?
Journalist Sam Quinones, this year’s WVU Festival of Ideas speaker, actually suggested exactly that in a newspaper commentary. The region of West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, among the hardest hit in opioid addiction and deaths, should focus on that problem and turn it around, he wrote. Why should people wait for months for treatment opportunities, settle for a certain kind because it is the only bed available, or travel far and wide at great expense and family hardship?
Why couldn’t a whole constellation of treatment options be developed right here? With researchers and professionals from WVU, Marshall and anyone else who wanted to contribute…