Clinton finds friendly audience at Charleston forum focused on substance abuse

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A recovering drug addict who is nearly eight years sober, the father of an addict who died after being mistakenly prescribed opioids and the West Virginia health and law enforcement officials who are leading the drug fight in the Mountain State are finding an ally in Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in the 2016 Presidential Race.

They all told their stories to Clinton during a Tuesday event at the University of Charleston’s Erma Byrd Gallery in Kanawha County, the last of the West Virginia scheduled — at least as of Tuesday afternoon — on her “Breaking Down Barriers” Tour that began Monday in Ashland, Kentucky.

“Conversations like this are really beginning to take place in some many different communities,” Clinton said of the forum focused on the fight against the drug epidemic in West Virginia and across the U.S.

A day after being booed during a visit to Mingo County, only cheers greeted both Clinton and U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) for the panel discussion.

During the forum, she heard from Chelsea Carter, a recovering drug addict from Boone County, who told Clinton she first started doing drugs with a friend at the age of 12. At the time, she said, she thought it was “cool” that the friend and the friend’s parents did drugs together.

For Carter, her drug usage eventually progressed to shooting up pills and landed her in jail.

The last day Carter used drugs was on Sept. 28, 2008, the day before she was arrested. With the help of the Boone County drug court program, she remains sober and will graduate from Concord University on Saturday with a master’s degree in social work.

She’s working on a proposal for a recovery facility for men called “Hero House.”

“I was very nervous. I was very happy that she was so open to hearing our stories,” Carter said. “I think that’s very important, that we need to come together as a nation and really get to heart of this epidemic that’s happening, that’s killing so many people that I’ve known.”

Also on the panel was David Grubb, the former West Virginia senator whose daughter, Jessie, died after being wrongly prescribed opioids following surgery for a running injury. U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has introduced legislation named for Jessie, requiring better notifications of addicts on medical charts, on Capitol Hill.

Clinton called Manchin’s proposal to assess a one penny per milligram tax on prescription opioids to generate “billions,” according to Manchin’s estimate, “a great idea.”

“They’re fighting us on it,” Manchin said. “Well, they fight you on everything, Joe,” Clinton responded. “That’s why we’ve got to join forces.”

The panel also included Dr. Rahul Gupta, West Virginia chief health officer and commissioner of the state Department of Health and Human Resources’ Bureau of Public Health; Boone County Circuit Judge Will Thompson; Andrea Darr, director of the West Virginia Center for Children’s Justice and Charleston Police Chief Brent Webster.

“We need drug courts everywhere,” Clinton said. “We need recovery and treatment programs everywhere. We need law enforcement leaders, like the chief, everywhere who understand that we cannot arrest and incarcerate our way out of this problem. We need focus on children.”

Many of those efforts are part of her previously introduced $10 billion “Initiative to Combat America’s Deadly Epidemic of Drug and Alcohol Addiction.”

In the crowd Tuesday was former West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton, a Clinton supporter. “I think this program today and listening to her words and her strength really convinced me, more than ever, that I was right in wanting to support her,” he said.

Of Clinton’s detractors, “I don’t think they realize the heart and soul of who this woman is and her commitment.”

Manchin agreed. “She cares. She didn’t have to be here. It’s a state that’s going to be very difficult (for her). We all know the challenges we’re facing. She understands that, the politics of West Virginia today. That doesn’t stop her from caring. That doesn’t stop her from knowing us. That doesn’t stop her from wanting to help us,” Manchin said on stage.

Tuesday’s UC stop for Clinton came one week before West Virginia’s primary election and the same day primary voters were going to the polls in Indiana.