West Virginia’s Drug Overdose Rate Highest in Nation, Again

Insurance Journal ^ | 1/22/19

[Blue House Sue]

West Virginia still leads the nation in the rate of drug overdose deaths.

The latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths in West Virginia is 52 per 100,000 in 2016. Ohio was second, with a rate of 39.1.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there were more than 63,600 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. The deadliest drug was the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which was linked to more than 19,400 deaths. The rate of drug overdose deaths connected to synthetic opioids doubled in just one year.

[Dr. Ursus]

Clearing the land for third world garbage!

[Blue House Sue]

“Clearing the land for third world garbage!”

Self-Selected Cultural Suicide.

[JimRed]

Darwinism at work. Weeding the garden, so to speak. Drug abuse is a CHOICE. Choose badly and you may die.

[Blue House Sue]

“Darwinism at work.”

For West Virginia and Ohio, it’s Cultural Darwinism.

The Culture cannot survive the environment of their own making.

[deport]

They need to crank up the stills and get back to their roots.
Leave the new stuff alone

[HangnJudge]

I have 8 generations of connections to W.Va.
3 Generations of Medical Doctors included

I think the collapse of the coal mining economy was the killing blow, especially in SW W.Va. Mostly thanks to Obama’s War on Coal. Leaving little but tourism, governmental largess, and hard scrabble farming to support the state. Those who remain are a strong and proud sort, but poverty is winning. I grieve the loss and social destruction.

[N8VTXNinWV]

I totally agree. I’m not a native, but this is my home. So very sad.

[Reily]

I moved back to WV after almost 40 years around the world but mostly NoVA. I have to say I am astounded by the opioid numbers.

I guess the loss of theming jobs has a role but I blame the “drug intoxication” culture that grew out of the 1960s.
It’s been absorbed into our play-time as cool & the thing to do! My hometown mayor made the claim on the radio that 60% of Kanawha County residents are not hirable because they can’t pass an employment drug test.

When I came back I spent some time reconnecting with old friends. They all had a story of a direct family member - child or grandchild, nephew/grandnephew or neighbor etc. with a opioid addiction story. However none of the stories started out as “so-n-so” lost his/her job and they were so distraught they turned to alcohol drugs, opioids! Or had an industrial injury then treatment where one thing led to another then BAM addicted to opioids! In every case it was part of the youthful (even not so youthful!) partying having a good time etc.! Now this is the Charleston-Huntington area so it’s at the northern edge of the coalfields but it’s not that different plus the stories ranged through the state!

[HangnJudge]

I really appreciate your viewpoints
They are valid and statistically relevant

I was just in Huntington last year at a funeral
The social decay was palpable
Shortly afterward a huge bust of Fentanyl occurred there

http://wvmetronews.com/2018/04/17/task-force-takes-down-detroit-to-huntington-drug-family

760 grams of heroin, 450 grams of fentanyl and 167 grams of cocaine.

[Reily]

I’ve was back a couple of times prior to moving here (My parents funerals!!) My hometown looked decayed then but its been decaying since the collapse of the chemical industry and the loss of Carbide. So at least there things didn’t look too different. During those times I went with family to Charleston for dinner. To me Charleston looked pretty prosperous, the downtown looked like it was coming back.

Wife & I have moved to Morgantown, and we love it. Except during 7 weekends in the fall - my wife hates football! Morgantown is booming and so is the local area as least as far down as Clarksburg. Which as far as we have ventured since I got back.

My wife is from the Philly area and is suspicious of anything south of the Mason-Dixon line. But she’s getting better about it particularly since daughter and son-in-law live in Morgantown.

[HangnJudge]

Morgantown Is very pretty
My Grandfather has a medical Library named after him at W.Va. Univ.
Both of my parents are from Clarksburg,
have a cousin practicing in Bridgeport
President of the WVa Impaired Physician Program

http://www.wvmphp.org/

[HangnJudge]

Better get used to the enthusiasm
W.Va. Folk are very proud of their football team

BTW WVa was Northern in the Civil War
That’s why there is Virginia and West Virginia

http://www.answers.com/Q/How_did_West_Virginia_split_from_Virginia

So y’all are still Yankees, even if you are south of the Mason Dixon Line

[sarge83]

I live in the mountains of Kentucky and we have the same issues with drug abuse and deaths as well. Obama’s declaring war on coal is still causing issues as many mines have not reopened yet.

I suspect the number of deaths being reported is actually low for drug overdoses. My mother-in-law works at a funeral home and many times I will see where a person under 50 has passed and she will ask if I knew them, sometimes yes, sometimes yes but hadn’t seen them since high school or no. Then I ask what happened and she will say overdose but the obit will read sudden illness or something similar. She said under age 50 over half are OD’s, just where she works alone.

[Yardstick]

Are you saying that rural and rustbelt America — i.e. the part of America that helped elect Donald Trump — has a cultural problem?

[Blue House Sue]

Any area that has a high incidence of opioid addiction, crack addiction, or any other drug addiction has a cultural problem.

[Garth Tater]

"I think the collapse of the coal mining economy was the killing blow, especially in SW W.Va. Mostly thanks to Obama’s War on Coal. Leaving little but tourism, governmental largess, and hard scrabble farming to support the state."

It's that "governmental largess" that caused the problem and now it's the drug epidemic that's solving it.

Back in the day (pre-70's) everybody knew who the "bad" families were and you kept your kids away from them and kids from good families didn't marry kids from bad families because "you don't want to end up like them, do you?" And then the feds came in a set up support programs for single mothers and what used to be a rare and self-extinguishing lifestyle out here in the hills exploded into a flood of fatherless households.

Fatherless households that had just as much money (or more) than a two parent household with a working father.

It's hard to convince your kids to stay away from that lifestyle if it's easier and just as profitable as the "work hard and keep your nose clean" path you try to send them down - but now with drugs killing the druggies right and left it's a whole lot easier to keep your kids on the straight and narrow.

Hard hearted of me? You bet, but life's not supposed to be easy and personally, I'm glad to see those choosing the easy path reaping their just rewards and leaving God's green earth to those of us that appreciate the gift.

[Reily]

Native & and got my master’s & PhD there.
Love football but wife doesn’t!
So I’m not the killjoy over Mountaineer football.

[Roccus]

...have a cousin practicing in Bridgeport

Bridgeport is a town with a good bit of wealth. Was he familiar with the pharmicist/mayor of Bridgeport who got a wrist slapping one year for his illigitimate opioid distribution business?

Wholebunchalotta doctors were very influential in this mess also. Here in Upshur Co. they were called "Happy Pills" and scripts were written up and handed out regularly.

[Yardstick]

Okay, but opioid addiction usually starts with a need to deal with chronic pain.

Surely that makes it different than crack addiction where the user starts with a desire to get high.

Different category, right?