Expand Federal Anti-Drug Program
There is more to West Virginia than the state capital and the area surrounding it. Yet that appears to be the extent of a new federal initiative targeting heroin and prescription drug abuse.
The U.S. Drug Enforce-ment Administration will spend $500,000 on the program, intended to apprehend pushers who supply opioid drugs to addicts, it was announced last week.
But the campaign is limited to Kanawha, Putnam and Cabell counties.
We have pointed out for years that, in part because much of the illegal drug traffic originates outside West Virginia, the drug war cannot be won by local and state law enforcement agencies. We need federal help — badly. Our state has the highest drug overdose rate in the nation.
Good for the DEA for bringing some muscle into the Charleston area. But, by the hundreds, West Virginians in other regions are dying, too.
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