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W. VA. Officials Agree Legislation Needed for Emergency Petition to Combat Heroin Epidemic
May 31—SHORT GAP, W.Va.—State and local officials at a group forum on heroin at the Short Gap fire hall Tuesday were in consensus that legislation is needed to allow the use of an emergency petition to get heroin addicts into a treatment facility.
"There are some jurisdictions in Maryland that if they respond to a non-fatal overdose, they do an emergency petition (hospital stay)," said James Pyles, director of safety and security at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. "Emergency petition is (used) if you are a harm to yourself or someone else."
In West Virginia, law enforcement can't enforce an emergency petition without it going before a judge, according to Colby Simpson, fire chief with the Short Gap Volunteer Fire Company.
"We try to save a life, and the more you handicap it, the harder it is for us. If there is a spoon and a needle in West Virginia, they can't even do anything. They can write a ticket," said Simpson.
Pyles agreed to help in any way he could to work on introducing legislation.
"We got a lot of things going on in West Virignia that a lot of other states don't have. We need to start working together," said Pyles.
There were more than 40 heroin overdoses in Short Gap last year, according to Simpson.
There are solutions to help combat the heroin epidemic, according to Pyles, including education, stopping the over-prescribing of opioids and reducing the stigma of heroin addiction.
Pyles said there also needs to be a change in what's being done in hospitals when there are non-fatal overdoses and an increase in access and awareness to Narcan and other medicines used to treat addicts. There are also options like medical marijuana, which is causing a decrease in opioid use and heroin overdoses, he said.
"It's crossing every race, every gender, every economic status—it's impacting everyone. There is no one immune to it, including me—it's hit me hard," said Pyles, who said he had a family member affected by it.
The heroin epidemic also affects children. In 2015, 18 percent of the babies born at Western Maryland Health Systems were born dependent on drugs, said Pyles.
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