HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Wednesday is International Overdose Awareness Day, and West Virginia will be one of 44 states to receive a portion of $53 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
West Virginia is one of 12 states that will receive ‘Prescription Drug Opioid Overdose Prevention Grants’ in effort to reduce opioid overdose-related deaths.
“It’s a day that we set aside each year to raise awareness of overdose and reduce the stigma of addiction, but I think it’s also a day that calls us to action,” said DHHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell, a West Virginia native.
Burwell said there’s three main pillars of fighting addiction: reducing over-prescribing, increasing access to treatment, and increasing the availability of the opioid antidote Naloxone, also known as Narcan.
“States can use this funding to enhance their prescription drug monitoring program, they can further prevention efforts like educating providers and patients about the risk of prescription drug overdose and they can help health systems make informed decisions around providing pain medication.”
President Obama has requested Congress’ approval of $1.1 billion in funding to fight the drug epidemic. Because there’s limited access to treatment facilities, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said it’s critical that the bill pass.
“When somebody is asking, begging for help, we don’t have six months to give, we don’t have six weeks; we don’t have six days,” he said. “We should have no less than six hours available to place somebody immediately into a treatment facility. This is not a Democrat issue or a Republican issue; this is an issue of saving lives.”
Earlier this month, Huntington and Cabell County experienced a rash of 26 overdoses in about six hours. Without access to Naloxone, Williams was sure there would have been more fatalities than the two that occurred.
“Thank heaven we didn’t have two dozen deaths, that we were able to save 24 lives,” said Williams, who said that he himself has learned how to administer Narcan and carries a kit around with him.
Williams said that there are only eight treatment beds in Cabell County available, and 132 in the entire state. West Virginia isn’t alone in experiencing a spike in recent overdoses, said Director of National Drug Control Policy Michael Botticelli.
“Just last week, around 200 people suffered from opioid overdoses in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky,” he said. “It’s really a testament to our law enforcement officials and other first responders that so many of these people are still alive today, because they were given Naloxone.”
The funding announced Wednesday is part of the U.S. DHHS Opioid Initiative, which was launched in March 2015.