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Battling Drug Abuse By the Grim Numbers

West Virginia, so often ranked nearly the bottom when compared to other states, is No. 1 in one thing — drug overdose deaths. Many people know that.

But collecting overdose data is a slow process — too slow, former U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld of Wheeling told state legislators last week.

He is right. Two months into 2017, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has West Virginia overdose statistics no more recent than 2015.

The state Medical Examiner’s Office has numbers indicating 2016 may have been more deadly in overdoses than 2015 — but the statistics have not been finalized yet.

We can’t battle a problem effectively without understanding it, Ihlenfeld noted. Better collection and analysis of drug abuse information ought to be a priority for state officials.

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