Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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August 12, 2011

Federal, state officials battle prescription drug abuse

By BILL ARCHER Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — Since the first of the year, the office of U.S. Attorney R. Booth Goodwin of the Southern District of West Virginia has prosecuted more than 60 cases involving defendants illegally selling prescription drugs. During a press conference in Princeton on Thursday afternoon, Goodwin said that prosecution alone won’t eliminate the problem.

“We can’t prosecute our way out of the problem,” Goodwin said during the press conference on the North lawn of the Mercer County Courthouse. “We can’t legislate our way out of the problem and we can’t incarcerate our way out of the problem.” He said that “we can only communicate” to address the problem.

The purpose of the press conference was to release a “Report and Recommendation” that served as the product of a one-day summit on prescription drug abuse that was held Feb. 25, at Twin Falls State Park. Since the summit, the federal government has added Mercer and Putnam counties to Appalachian HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area), the U.S. Attorney’s office has joined with Mercer, Wyoming and McDowell counties to battle prescription drug abuse and destroyed 3,178 pounds of prescription drugs through National Take Back Day April 30, among other initiatives.

“The summit surpassed all of our expectations,” Goodwin said. He said participants learned that it is important to “get the word out” and to consolidate the information “into something we can use. We wanted to make sure this was not just another report that would gather dust on a shelf.”

Goodwin said that he learned that West Virginia has the nation’s highest per capita overdose death rate, but he also said that his office learned that several organizations have been working to address the problem for several years. “The report has good, tangible, achievable action items,” he said. “The only way out of this problem is to communicate out of it.”

Tomblin reiterated Goodwin’s comments that West Virginia needs to address the prescription drug abuse problem. “We’ve made some major progress, but West Virginians will tell you they are concerned with the problem of prescription drug abuse.”

Tomblin said that citizens can make a difference. “I believe that community members know what’s best,” Tomblin said. “We must help to create expectations of success.” He encourage people to make a difference in their communities. “Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint,” he said.

Smithers characterized the prescription drug abuse problem as “one of the biggest if not the biggest drug problems in the state.” He said that the law enforcement community has heard the concerns from the public and has collaborated to attack the problem.

“We realize this is not just a crime problem, but a societal problem,” Smithers said. “If we don’t get a handle on it, it’s going to continue to ruin our youth ... our future.”

Smithers launched a new prescription drug abuse awareness poster at the press conference and said the State Police will provide posters for the schools and for pharmacies. For more information about the summit report, call (304) 345-2200 or visit (www.justice.gov/usao/wvs/).

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

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