Kanawha day report employees test positive for COVID-19; offices closed until Aug. 24

by SHANNON STOWERS / Sunday, August 9th 2020

 

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) —

Two employees at the Kanawha County Day Report Center have tested positive for the coronavirus.

 

Officials said both cases appear to be travel-related, according to a news release. Both employees are currently doing well.

 

As a result of the positive tests, Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford said he is closing the facility until Aug. 24.

 

“Due to the fact the employees of Day Report and Drug Court can telework and out of an abundance of caution, I am ordering the closure of the Day Report and Drug Court Offices until, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020,” Rutherford said in the news release.

 

The building will undergo a deep cleaning and request will be submitted to the National Guard to sanitize the building with their Curis Decontamination System which is used to disinfect all surfaces. Click here to read more.

 

'This program really works:' Six celebrate success at drug court graduation

By HANNA PENNINGTON The Herald-Dispatch Feb 11, 2020

 

HUNTINGTON — It was an emotional day for 25-year-old Huntington resident Destiny Bostrom, who was recognized Monday afternoon for completing Cabell County Drug Court.

 

“This is absolutely amazing; this is honestly the only thing I have ever graduated in my life,” said Bostrom, who recently celebrated 13 months sober. “My life now makes me realize that I will never go back to what I was, and how proud people are of me, and the way people view me now versus when they did before is a complete 180.”

 

Bostrom is one of six members of drug court who were recognized at the Cabell County Courthouse for completing the program. The others also shared how the program has helped them change the course of their lives. Click here to read more.

 

FDA Declares Popular Alt-Medicine Kratom an Opioid

Feb. 6, 2018, 9:13 PM EST / Updated Feb. 7, 2018, 10:35 AM EST By Maggie Fox

 

The Food and Drug Administration declared the popular herbal product kratom to be an opioid on Tuesday, opening a new front in its battle to get people to stop using it.

 

New research shows kratom acts in the brain just as opioids do, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. And he said the agency has documented 44 cases in which kratom at least helped kill people — often otherwise healthy young people.

 

“Taken in total, the scientific evidence we’ve evaluated about kratom provides a clear picture of the biologic effect of this substance,” Gottlieb wrote. Click here to read more.

 

W.Va. Counties Implement ‘Family Treatment Court’ Hoping to Reunify More Families

West Virginia Public Broadcasting / Emily Allen / August 30, 2019

 

Spend a Monday at the Boone County courthouse, and you’ll see judges and public attorneys overwhelmed with a surging number of child abuse and neglect cases.

 

Mondays are reserved in Boone County for abuse and neglect hearings. Circuit Judge Will Thompson for Boone and Lincoln counties said he usually gets about 30 hearings each week. On his busiest days, he’s dealt with around 50.   Click here to read more.

 

WVU Extension Service joins Marie’s House in the battle against the opioid epidemic

West Virginia Extension Service / September 25, 2019

 

Strength, courage, resilience, determination—these are not often words you hear used to describe an area in rural West Virginia that is crippled by the opioid epidemic. But, in Wayne, West Virginia, just 20 minutes south of what is considered West Virginia’s opioid capital, Marie’s House Women’s Recovery Center is battling this epidemic built on a foundation of these very ideals.

 

“You either become part of the problem or part of the solution,” Misty Martin, director of Marie’s House, said. “Thanks to a grant obtained by the Honorable Darrell Pratt, Wayne County circuit court judge, and Christopher Dean, director of Western Regional Day Report Center, we became part of the solution with the establishment of Marie’s House.” Click here to read more.

 

Dean receives Michael Prestera award of excellence

The Herald-Dispatch Aug 1, 2018

 

Members of the Prestera Center Board of Directors have announced Christopher Dean is the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Michael Prestera Award of Excellence. Click here to read more.

 

Drugs are killing so many people in West Virginia that the state can’t keep up with the funerals

 

Deaths in West Virginia have overwhelmed a state program providing burial assistance for needy families for at least the fifth year in a row, causing the program to be nearly out of money four months before the end of the fiscal year, according to the state's Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR). Funeral directors in West Virginia say the state's drug overdose epidemic, the worst in the nation, is partly to blame.

 

West Virginia's indigent burial program, which budgets about $2 million a year for funeral financial assistance, had already been under pressure from the aging of the baby-boom generation. The program offers an average of $1,250 to help cover funeral expenses for families who can't otherwise afford them.

 

In the current fiscal year ending June 30, "1,508 burials have been submitted for payment through the Indigent Burial Program,” according to Allison Adler, a spokesman for state DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch. “There are funds remaining for 63 additional burials.” Read More >

 

This drug dealer’s heroin was so powerful that it led to 26 overdoses in a single day

 

The man responsible for more than two dozen heroin overdoses — which all occurred in one day in a state deemed the ground zero for the opioid epidemic — faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

 

Bruce Lamar Griggs, 22, pleaded guilty on Monday to distribution of heroin, about six months after 26 people overdosed in Huntington, a city in the southwest corner of West Virginia. The 911 calls came within hours of one another, the majority of which concerned overdoses in and around one apartment complex.

 

Federal prosecutors say Griggs, known as “Benz” or “Ben,” admitted supplying heroin to all 26 people, who overdosed immediately after taking the drugs. Laboratory tests of blood and urine samples showed traces not only of heroin, but also of fentanyl and carfentanil — synthetic opioids that are exponentially more powerful than heroin or morphine. Read More >

 

The Heroin-Ravaged City Fighting Back

A city in West Virginia is targeting the drugs companies that it blames for its epidemic.