Seminar focuses on Mid-Ohio Valley drug problem
MINERAL WELLS — People from around the Mineral Wells community gathered at a local church to find out about the drug problem facing the area and what they could do about it.
Around 100 people attended a drug awareness seminar Sunday evening at Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church in Mineral Wells.
During the event, local law enforcement officials presented steps people could use to help someone they care for during the usage, withdrawal and recovery stages of drug abuse.
“The younger generation needs to know the risk of drugs,” said seminar organizer Larry Fought.
Fought said he was a businessman who owned a number of rental properties locally with other partners. One was an alcoholic and had passed away almost two years ago.
He said after a long day they would unwind at a bar with drinks and some pills.
“That is the worst mistake I made and I am lucky I did not end up like him,” Fought said, adding he was eventually able to get out of that cycle through his involvement in the church and becoming a Christian.
It was his friend’s death that prompted him to start programs to educate the community, especially young kids and young adults, about the risks drugs and alcohol present and how they can destroy people’s lives, he said.
“Everyone has a choice,” Fought said. “Within that choice is your life and your life is in your hands.
“If you choose drugs, you are affecting more than yourself (including family and loved ones).”
For many addicts, it all starts with prescription drugs. Unfortunately, many kids and young people start abusing prescription drugs, like Vicodin, that are available in their own homes.
People’s association with the wrong people can lead them to drugs like heroin and meth through peer pressure.
“We have to build a stronger relationship with our children,” Fought said, by telling them about the dangers of drugs and overcoming peer pressure.
Nationally, 2.9 percent of drug users are 12-13-years-old, 8 percent are between 14-15-years-old, 11.2 percent are 16-17-years-old, 10.4 at 18-20-years-old; 4.5 percent for 21-25 -years-old and addiction can carry over into older age groups.
“There are drug dealers who are injecting heroin into gummi bears and give them out to children to get them hooked,” Fought said. “After they are hooked, where do they get their income? It is petty crime.
“They will break into cars and do anything they can which has a cost for everyone in this room.”
Fought urged everyone to report drug usage to the police.
Officials also presented information on new drugs entering the area and about the danger meth production can cause to people. The presentation included photos from actual meth labs found locally and around the state.
Wood County 911 Director Rick Woodyard, who formerly served on the area’s drug task force, showed the effects of long term meth abuse with pictures of people taken over time.
Local officials said emergency crews are responding to one overdose a week just in the Mineral Wells area.
“West Virginia leads the U.S. in overdoses and Wood County leads the state,” Woodyard said. “It is everyone’s problem.”
Prescription drugs and heroin were the two biggest drug problems in this area currently. Heroin is relatively cheap, $20-$25 for 0.03 grams.
“This stuff is so addictive,” Woodyard said. “These people are your moms, your dads, your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends … this is who the addicts are today.
“These are the people who live right next door to you.”
Woodyard talked about the ways people coming off a high can become dangerous and violent. They can become paranoid and believe people are after them, including the belief that people are hiding in nearby trees. In one instance, local law enforcement had a informant buying drugs from a local man and overheard him on a wire randomly shooting into the woods as he believed people were out there after him.
Woodyard said increased and continual use of meth can lead to organ failure, permanent mental deficiencies, severe skin problems and more.
“A lot of the stuff is pretty powerful,” he said.
Narcan is a drug that has been used to treat drug overdoses. Addicts have gotten mad over being administered Narcan, because it ruined their high, Woodyard said.
“There was a girl in town that was Narcanned three times in one day,” he said, adding people are building up a tolerance to it.
Officials warned of a new drug that could already be in the area, FLAKKA.
“This is some bad stuff,” Woodyard said. “When this stuff hits the streets, it will be a new ballgame.”
It was described as a “demon drug” that created a “zombie-like state.” People on this can’t just be put in jail until it wears off, they have to be medically cleared from a hospital before they enter the jail, Woodyard said. Just a few people could tie up a police department’s available manpower.
FLAKKA impacts a person’s nervous system. Cases have had people out of their minds, running through the streets naked and other problems.
Wood County Home Confinement Director Steve Stephens of the Wood County Sheriff’s Department said no one wakes up one day and decides they are going to be a drug addict. For many people, it starts with prescription medications they get from their doctor.
People get used to the feeling the drug provides. If they can’t get it through another prescription, they turn to other drugs like heroin or something else, Stephens said. The county’s jail bill is $250,000 a month and has been growing.
“It affects everyone,” Stephens said. “Everyone is paying for that.”
In Wood County, there were 26 overdose deaths in 2011, 25 in 2012, 33 in 2013, 37 in 2014 and 34 in 2015, Stephens said.
“We still have three more months to go this year and we are already up to 30,” he said. “More people are dying from overdoses compared to anything else.”
Whenever a new drug shows up and overdoses occur, that drug becomes the one sought out by addicts.
“They want to know where that came from so they can go get it,” Stephens said. “They think they are a bit stronger and if they get this, they think they will survive it.”
Officials urged the public to report drug abuse to law-enforcement. The tipline for the sheriff’s department is 304-834-3909.