Lawmakers seek grant assistance for drug trafficking areas

Aug. 17—More drug overdoses occurs in the Appalachian region than other parts of the country, so senators in West Virginia and Virginia are calling on the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) for more help to combat drug-trafficking.

U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., along with U.S. Senators Mark Warner, D-Va., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., sent a letter this week to Dr. Rahul Gupta, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), pressing for additional assistance to combat drug-trafficking in the Appalachian region.

While some counties in West Virginia have seen a slight decline in overdose deaths, West Virginia remains the state with the highest number of overdoses in the country, according to the senators' letter. Information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that in 2020, 1,330 lives were lost to drug overdoses — a death rate of 81.4 per 100,000 total population. The national average is 28.3 per 100,000.

In southern West Virginia, first responders get many calls about overdose incidents. According to records at Community Connections, Inc. in Princeton, during the past 365 days, quick response teams that address overdoses have handled 921 overdose cases, non-repeating, in an area covering Mercer, McDowell, Summers, Monroe and Wyoming counties.

"It's a very complicated situation," said Greg Puckett, executive director of Community Connections. "We have been working with the West Virginia Office of Drug Control Policy through a state opioid response grant to expand quick response teams to help deal with overdoses. In southern West Virginia, we have really been pushing the cooperative effort with our community mental health centers; and we have made a tremendous impact distributing Narcan and getting people access to quality care. Had we not been doing this over a long period of time, the death rate in comparison to the overdose rate would have been exponentially higher."

Quick response teams in southern West Virginia have been expanded, Puckett said.

"Basically, within 72 hours, a licensed response expert goes to visit somebody who has been in a documented overdose," he said. "This gives them an opportunity to get into an active treatment system. The team of professionals includes rescue squads, nonprofit mental health systems like Southern Highlands, and we have a network in southern West Virginia like very few places have across the country."

The senators said in their letter to the ONDCP that Appalachia's law enforcement agencies struggle to stem the tide of substance abuse.

"In the words of then-Attorney General, William Barr, Appalachia has suffered the consequences of the opioid epidemic 'more, perhaps, than any other region.' In 2018, the overdose mortality rate for individuals ages 25-43 was 43 percent higher in Appalachia than the rest of the country. It is a region that needs the assistance that the HIDTA program was designed to provide."

Since its creation in 1988, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) grant assistance program has provided for greater coordination and information sharing among federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement agencies. These additional federal resources, allocated to areas deemed as critical drug trafficking regions, are essential in eliminating drug trafficking and its harmful consequences. ONDCP has the statutory authority to create new HIDTAs and add new counties to existing HIDTAs once it has received a formal petition from a coalition of law enforcement agencies, according to the senators' leter.

Despite the need, historically the Appalachian HIDTA has only gained approval for approximately 30 percent of petitions submitted. In the most recent round of designations, no counties within the Appalachian HIDTA — which encompasses West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Southwest Virginia — received the sought-after designation.

"This fact, juxtaposed with the region's manifest need, suggests strongly that the process of awarding needs to be revisited," the senators stated. "Counties in the Appalachian HIDTA would benefit from the expansion of this program into their communities and it would be of immense help to the law enforcement agencies serving them and surrounding areas. As ONDCP reviews HIDTA designation petitions from Appalachia, we ask that you consider the devastating impacts of illegal drugs in the region in order to effectively disrupt and dismantle trafficking organizations and reduce drug-related crime."

"We urge ONDCP to review its criteria to ensure that hard-hit regions like Appalachia remain competitive for HIDTA designations. We further request a written response describing the results of this review be provided in a timely manner," the senators concluded.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com