Did someonesay an epidemic? Update on state’s pilot project to fightopioid crisis lacks any sense of urgency

“You know I’m an impatient guy. We’ve got to move on this, that’s all there is to it.”
Most assumed when Gov. Jim Justice said that on Feb. 5, 2018, it would be a matter of months, not a year, before the pilot project he was launching to fight the opioid epidemic might produce some results.
But most of us were certain we would have some idea of what this program actually looked like and it would even be actually implemented and operating in two counties by now, as Justice announced.
He chose Wyoming County, in southern West Virginia, and said another county in the north or Eastern Panhandle would be selected later.
More than a year later, it’s apparent only Wyoming County was picked for this demonstration project. And judging by the update on this program Friday, even that county’s program is just now in the final stages of planning and budgeting.
Still, last week the governor — not one to be distracted by lack of results — announced this program is now expanding to Berkeley and Jefferson counties.
When Wyoming County was chosen, the governor was asked why he preferred Wyoming instead of Cabell County, which was then ground zero for this crisis and still is.
Justice said Huntington was too big to tackle right off. It was better to start small scale. He also acknowledged then there was no guarantee this program would transfer to bigger communities.
We’re uncertain what makes this program transferrable now to two of the most populous counties in the state with the highest rates of fatal drug overdoses.
Especially, in light of the Wyoming pilot project still not even fully implemented. But that’s a question for another day.
We don’t know enough about this program that hopes to put together a playbook on combating the opioid epidemic to comment on it.
However, we do know for a crisis to be met with such a lack of urgency as this project and others amounts to seemingly letting things just take their own course.
We realize, as the governor noted last year, maybe we won’t ever be able to end this epidemic, but we would like to think we could put a dent in it.
Unlike a vaccine that can fend off a virus or a dread disease there is no injection or magical pill ever likely to be discovered to end substance abuse addiction.
However, many of our state’s substance abuse projects to do that appear inconsistent, leaderless much of the time and ultimately amount to grasping at straws.
There are any number of such straws we could point to in this effort during the past year.
But judging by the tragic status quo that’s still the reality this drug crisis is, most have come up way short.