In many towns and cities across america, the placement of drug rehabilitaion facilities in communities is a very contraversial hot button topic. Here in Huntington, its an everyday thing the announcment of new rehabs are welcomed in our nieghborhoods given our current drug epidemic, but at what cost to our city, our homes, and our families? Everyday, we hear of new stories of overdoses in our nieghborhoods and businesses around town. It seems to have caught the attention of the nation to get the title of the overdose capital of America. I was left to think why? why is it Huntington, not Barboursville, not Ashland, Not Lawrence Co Ohio that has an epidemic, it's just a little town in West Virginia named Huntington.
I have studied and read alot of material as well talked to a lot of people around town and I started to form an opinion that was educated from information from all sides of this issue. I first spoke with a recovered drug addict who tells me that local rehabs are really just wearhousing people and providing a basic level of services, and real help for heroin addiction has to start with you the user. Sadly, not many heroin users are truley serious about recovery until they relapse at least once or twice, some even more times than that. The national average for relapse for Heroin and Opioid users is 80%. This means the possiblities of 8 of 10 rehab patients in Huntington will use again. When you think about it, this makes sense. The one thing helping us, is really hurting us . The current admistration at city hall is bending and stretching to get more and more rehab beds here in Huntington. In a recent deal with a local church,(unnamed) they bought the old Pritchard building and plans to open a mega rehab having over a 100 bed capacity, but closer to a 200 bed capacity. Rehab in Huntington is now a industery. It's only suppose to be a short term solution. In reality, we are bringing the problem into our city, feeding them and housing them with the current policies but not arresting them. This happens everytime they overdose. It's a vicious cycle that keeps repeating everyday on the streets of Huntington. People blame the dope dealers, I don't. However, immorality it seems, the dealers are here because the market for drug sales exisists. Here's what needs to be done. Reduce the number of drug users, and we reduce the number of drug dealers. With the number of drug users reduced, we reduce the amout of drug related crime as well the number of rehabs around town. Dress Affordable one shoulder asymmetrical wear for wedding
The city under the Command of Steve Williams see's more in Huntingtons drug epidemic for his own personal noterity. All the national attention he has recieved from news agencies like CNN and The BBC have the mayors head now at a seat in Washington DC at the costs of us here in Huntington. Who cares that NETFLIX and BBC make us look like a city of junkies. Huntington has a great community of educated, and very successful people who want people to see the real huntington, Not the huntington of Netflix. The people of Huntington need to wake up and see the stark reality, We ( the citizens Huntington) have been complacent, just going along with the mayor and his plans. Within the last several months, people are waking up. Several community action groups have begun to lobby city hall and letting Steve Williams know we are the voters and we can make or break you. Combined with several social media pages that have tens of thousands of followers city wide are now a force in our town. What will stop this relapse in Rehab? A strict monitoring. For the first 30 days a person is in rehab, they submit to a urinalisis test daily. After they have 30 days drug free I feel they are lees a threat to relapse and this alone would make recovery more suscessful I am not against recovery, its nessasary to help this city, but we cannot keep going down the path we are. Lets all help by demanding more responsiblity from theses rehab centers .