CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — A day after being appointed by Gov. Jim Justice to sit on the board of the West Virginia First Foundation, Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Harvey reflected on the weight of the position.
“This was 25 years in the making. I just remember my experience growing up, starting college and the introduction of pills into our communities and then the onslaught, the flooding of it (pills). I’ve been taking time to reflect on the reason we need this foundation,” Harvey said.
Harvey said he’s seen how addiction and the opioid epidemic have ravaged West Virginia, especially southern West Virginia, where he grew up. The Mountain State has the nation’s highest overdose death rate.
“My goal is to honor the tens of thousands of West Virginians who have lost their lives, found themselves incarcerated, their families destroyed and torn apart by this epidemic,” Harvey told the Panhandle News Network. “Hopefully this is the beginning to correcting all of that.”
The members of the board, which include regional representatives like the Eastern Panhandle’s Tim Czaja, will be tasked with distributing the settlement funds. Czaja is the Community Corrections Director for Berkeley County.
Harvey feels his experience as both a prosecuting and defense attorney will help in this new position.
“I (as a defense attorney) actually sat beside the people that were substance use disorder and they made bad decisions based on that and I was trying to help them get the resources they needed to clean themselves up,” Harvey said. “I see (as prosecutor) the families that are hurting.”
Harvey said he has already talked to Czaja and they plan some listening sessions with stakeholders. He said ultimately, he wants to hear how communities can use this money to in his words, “make them whole” again after the more than decade-long opioid crisis in the Mountain State.
Justice’s recent appointees will still need to be confirmed by the state senate, according to Harvey.
Matt Harvey was a guest on Tuesday’s Panhandle Live, heard weekday mornings on WEPM/WCST The Panhandle News Network.
You can read more about the foundation and its current slate of appointees here.