Your 4 State - Comstock, Mooney Attend Round Table Discussion About Heroin

News Article

By Rachel Charlip

Lawmakers, public servants, and medical professionals from West Virginia and Virginia gathered at the Timbrook Public Safety Center on Monday to discuss the growing issue of heroin addiction in the Shenandoah.

"We wanted to bring everyone together in the community to talk about this growing threat to our communities," said United States Congresswoman, Barbara Comstock.

"The problem is so big, it needs collaboration," added United States Representative, Alex Mooney.

The round table discussion started off with a presentation noting how the community has responded to the epidemic, to date.

For example, attendees learned that the Northwestern Regional Jail has a 90 day drug treatment program, which only had a 50 percent graduation rate between January 2012 and October 2014, and cost over three million dollars to fund (excluding those who didn't graduate).

They also learned that 43 percent of Winchester Medical Center's opiate and heroin cases were uninsured patients.

Although, Representative Mooney said he thought the issue of trafficking was striking.

"Stopping the supply, figuring out where it is and trying to cut it off," are what he thinks would be most effective in combating the heroin problem in the area.

Law enforcement present said they have cracked down on the drug supply traveling along Interstate 81, which stretches through Martinsburg and into northern Virginia.

Although now, they say Route 340, which runs from northern Virginia all the way into West Virginia, has become the popular detour for drug dealers.

It was noted in the discussion that the easy access to both states makes it even easier for those seeking prescription drugs to go from place to place, looking for a pharmacy that will give them a refill.

But Congresswoman Comstock says prescription monitoring programs would streamline data on the prescriptions people receive, and when they receive them.

"We have those on the state level, but what do we need to be doing on the national level? So I think it's always looking for new ideas on how to fight what is a multi-front war."

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