A hotline that helps people in West Virginia find treatment for addiction to
prescription drugs is in danger of closing for lack of money. West Virginia has the dubious distinction of having the country's highest rate of fatal drug overdoses. Unfortunately, most of these deaths are directly as a result of prescription drugs.
Despite these sobering facts, officials with the West Virginia Prescription Drug Abuse Quitline claim state leaders are not concerned with their lack of money for the program. The Quitline started in September of 2008 with $1 million dollars from a lawsuit against the manufacturer of Oxycontin. That seed money will run out in 2012.
"We provide a service to all West Virginians that is not going to be able to continue if we don't get the funding," said Laura Lander, the clinical supervisor of the program.
The hotline is free and confidential. It is based at West Virginia University and has six phone educators that are trained in addiction. They help connect people calling with
treatment resources in the community.
"We're really a bridge between the person who needs help, and the help," Lander said.
In 2008, 390 people in West Virginia died from accidental overdoses involving prescription drugs, according to the state Health Statistics Center. That is an increase from 91 deaths in 2001. The director of the West Virginia Prevention Resource Center said that many programs in West Virginia have struggled to get state funding to fight the epidemic of prescription drug addiction.
"So far, West Virginia is not really - at least in terms of funding - taking substance abuse problems seriously," said Wayne Coombs.
