Fight to preserve harm reduction programs
What could be controversial about programs that reduce harm in our communities? Apparently a lot.
For a state that has seen as much addiction as West Virginia, we should do better because we know better. People whose lives have been impacted by substance use are diverse — from the richest families to the most impoverished. We all have our struggles. We know what it’s like when someone we know and love needs help.
As Appalachians, we should know that when one of our own is in their time of greatest need, we don’t turn our backs on them.
Harm reduction programs provide a tremendous public health service. They provide access to medical care to a population that otherwise could not access it. It is a public good that helps prevent outbreaks of communicable viruses and diseases.
These are good reasons for continuing and expanding harm reduction services in the state, but none of these are the most important reason.
The most important reason is because these are fellow humans, fellow Mountaineers, who deserve to be treated as human beings. They deserve the health care they need. They also deserve to be treated with compassion, understanding and respect.
Our local harm reduction program in Morgantown does a great job providing this invaluable human connection to those persons it serves.
If we want to turn our backs on our own Mountaineer family when they need us the most, then SB 334 is a great direction to take. It would make harm reduction programs less available, if not completely unavailable, to our most vulnerable residents.
This kind of policy is anathema to me, and I would think it ought to be for most of us, too. Instead of introducing self-righteous legislation, we ought to send health and social service workers to learn from the great work being done by Milan Puskar Health Right with the goal of replicating these programs across the state.
Let’s take a different approach: One of compassion and service to our neighbors, and expand access to harm reduction in West Virginia, not limit it.
Rev. Zac Morton
Morgantown
WSJ gets it wrong about Texas power grid failure
The Wall Street Journal editorial recently posted in The Dominion Post is misleading. Texas is a self-regulating state: ERCOT and Texas’ government officials regulate the utilities.
Texas isn’t connected to the national electric grid. The federal government has no say in how Texas’ power is regulated. Because the state didn’t want to follow federal regulations.
In 2011, extremely cold temperatures arrived in Texas, causing gas and water pipes leading into and in power plants to freeze — at wellheads, valves and exposed pipelines. The governor at the time refused to winterize the pipelines and the grid. Now the same thing has happened again.
The present governor of Texas blamed the Green New Deal. However there is no Green New Deal.
Reasons for the grid’s shortfall:
◘ Several power plants were taken offline for maintenance, preparing for the high summer demand.
◘ Some operating nuclear, coal or gas plants were shut down because of frozen water or gas lines or coal supply.
◘ Wind turbines froze because they were installed without heated blades and turbines, ignoring the recommendations from 2011. Heated blades and turbines work in many subzero temperatures worldwide.
Only the people of Texas can fix this problem: At the ballot box or by demanding ERCOT and Texas officials correct the situation. Consumers can tell ERCOT and politicians to winterize the electric grid, gas and water supplies.
Texas’ power grid fuel use breaks down as follows: 52% natural gas, 17% coal, 23% solar, wind and nonhydrocarbon, and 8% nuclear, biomass, hydro and petroleum. Ten percent of the renewables stayed online.
I was a miner for over 30 years, but just like humans progressed from the Stone Age to the Industrial Revolution, we need to make the next great leap. Bring renewable jobs to West Virginia. We need jobs for the miners who have been laid off or whose mines have shut down. What jobs would renewables create? Heavy equipment operators, electricians, engineers, mechanics, construction and factory workers, maintenance personnel and many more.
Charlie Jones
Morgantown
Collaboration a must; so is police review board
What if I said that I would like to see Morgantown be a more collaborative community, with more involvement from more people, so we can make this city the best place it can possibly be? I don’t think many people would take issue with that statement.
As a member of the Morgantown community, I support the city ordinance for the creation of a Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board primarily for the reason stated above. It will enable us to collaborate and to successfully work toward common goals.
Collaboration is something you do in almost every job, learning experience or home to ensure problems are being solved. It gets you through change and challenges, allowing you to go further together as a business, team or family. Collaboration skills include communicating clearly, actively listening to others, taking responsibility for mistakes and respecting the diversity of your colleagues or, in this case, community members.
I see that as the purpose of this ordinance. It is simply calling us to be a more collaborative and involved community. The main duty of the proposed board is to provide recommendations and work together as a group of people with diverse experiences living, working and giving to this community. An effective police force must be strong within, but it also needs support and encouragement from the community it serves. This is a way citizens can support police officers, especially when officers may not have the background knowledge of a community in which they may have not spent much time, outside of their service duties.
Allowing more members of the community to get involved leads to progress and opportunity in all sectors. This community has so much to offer, but there’s more work to be done as we move into this year and beyond. I hope you’ll join me in supporting the ordinance to create a Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board that has been introduced in Morgantown City Council. It’s one more path forward to a better community for all.
Kinsey Walker
Morgantown
Support home grow medical cannabis
I am writing as a concerned citizen of West Virginia to address the need to expand access to medical cannabis.
I am a retired police officer and this has been a topic that has confused me for the entirety of my career. Citizens of West Virginia do not have ease of access to medical cannabis. The legalization of medical cannabis law was signed into law April 19, 2017. Dispensaries were to be operating by Jan. 1, 2020. As of the writing of this letter, none have been opened due to difficulties in the limits of financing.
Bearing this in mind, allowing citizens, especially the elderly, to grow their own medical cannabis in their own homes would ease the burden on those citizens that this current state of affairs has created. They would have immediate access to a natural remedy for pain and nausea related to treatment of illnesses, such as cancer and AIDS, that plague our families and friends. They would not have to travel (those who can) to have access to this.
Help our friends and families lessen their pain by supporting home grow amendments to the existing law. Contact your legislators, urging them to support improvements of access to medical cannabis, especially home grow.
Mark A. Tuzi
Morgantown
