SAN DIEGO, March 20, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Heroin Detox Clinics releases another resource page for the city of Huntington WV. Huntington, West Virginia has been called the overdose capital of America due to the staggering statistic that they have ten times the national average of overdoses. The decline of the coal industry created many jobless and defeated people. That is often the breeding ground to turn to drugs that are easily available. Law enforcement is also spread very thin and not able to curb this growing crisis.
Huntington, West Virginia, the city of 48,113, faces the reality every day that the opioid crisis is a public health issue. 20% of all babies born in the two local hospitals have neonatal abstinence syndrome, meaning that they were exposed to opioids while still in the womb. The syringe exchange program serves 200 people each week. In August 2016, there were 28 reported overdoses in just one five-hour span. The overwhelming damage is not just about the overdoses and lives lost: This crisis is tearing the community apart, tearing families apart and that kind of damage is immeasurable. The new article focuses on addiction treatment centers in Huntington West Virginia and what is expected when someone enters into treatment.
Huntington West Virginia is hardly alone. Opioid addiction is now the worst drug crisis in our nation’s history, killing 90 Americans each day in 2015 and leaving hundreds more homeless, broken, destitute and physically annihilated . The statistics in report after report all come to the same conclusion. Drug overdose deaths are increasing by huge numbers year after year. There needs to be new solutions implemented. Huntington is a small city that can try some of the newer tactics to changing the outcome of the drug crisis.
Huntington has begun implementing alternate methods of dealing with the addicts. Their research found that putting a low-level drug addict in jail will cost almost $50.00 a day. The more important finding is that these addicts who are incarcerated instead of admitting them into a solid heroin drug rehab program will always go right back to using as soon as they are released. Police officers are being trained to identify an addict and direct them to get the proper treatment. They are working to prevent the growing number of unnecessary and accidental overdoses that plague, not only Huntington, but our whole country. There needs to be a program that will help to educate, give treatment to, give life tools and support to the addicts seeking sobriety. Cities need to make sure the recovery centers are run ethically, legally and are actually helping their patients to become productive people in their community and in their families. Strong support needs to be top priority to those who have gone through their drug treatment program and are now ready to start their new, sober and healthy life.
Another very strong step that Huntington has taken has been to call in the National Guard. They are flying helicopters to provide eyes helping out during drug busts. A group of the National Guard is working in the police department, answering phone calls coming in on the hotline as well as working with their computers to track down drug dealers and help with drug busts, directing the police to the right people and places.
In January of 2018, Netflix came out with a documentary that focused on the heroin epidemic in Huntington. The work of three women, Fire Chief Jan Rader, Necia Freeman of Brown Bag Ministry and Cabell County Judge Patricia Keller, was the focus of the documentary that received an Oscar nomination in the short documentary category. Action to be proactive is the first step in seeing a dip in the overdose deaths in our country. Small cities like Huntington are taking the first, second and third steps to implement as many programs and changes as it takes to flip this opioid crisis on its back and bring back a safer community.
Author: William Leonard
Organization: HeroinDetoxClinics.com
Address: 27420 Jefferson Ave, Temecula, CA 92590
Phone: 888-325-2454
https://heroindetoxclinics.com/
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/904eeeec-43f4-49c9-9a89-d5d7e30c1720