Cabell County - Troubling HIV spike
- Thread starter SamSwimmer
- Start date
I think there are many more as well, but that is the number the county health dept. throws out based on the vaunted needle exchange program.
Again, studies usually state there is a margin of error. They are not gospel or always accurate. I would say you can throw all the studies out the door when discussing the situation in Huntington. Either Huntington is an unusual situation, or those in charge of handling the situation, ie. City Hall, Cabell Co. Health Dept., etc. are totally incompetent and mismanaging the issue badly.
What about the docs who blindly write scripts for patients they know are using more pills than they should? What about the local pharmacies who are filling scripts from local docs, knowing full well, Mr. Smith just came in last week for the same prescription that was supposed to last him a month. Last time I checked, a drug company or any business that sells goods, doesn't just ship product without orders (scripts). JMO.
I saw plenty of drug zombies around Huntington before Charleston shut theirs down. Maybe you are now looking for what you want to see. Maybe the local drug problem is getting worse...this is actually a possibility, almost everything is now super-potent, laced with fentynal, and the worst of worst addicts are staying alive due to medical intervention. That would make for an interesting study.
Please link to the news story about a wave of addicts moving down I-64. Please don't link to Tom Rotten, or whatever his name is.
Did they say that is the number served and you understood it as total number of addicts?
An exchange is not the only way to get syringes. WV does not prohibit retail sale w/o a Rx. OH and KY actually specifically allow retail sale w/o a Rx!
We are SO past that point. Even though I will debate anyone as to who started this shit (BigPharma and certain doctors), it is a useless discussion as to what to do NOW. We no longer have a pill crisis. We really no longer have a heroin crisis. We have a fentanyl crisis. And this particular discussion that started the thread is about a public health crisis not currently caused by pills.
I understood it as the total number of addicts. You could be right that it's the total number served. But as you said, I too thought that number was extremely low.
I know I sound like a hard ass on this. I just think it has been totally mismanaged from the get go. A more hard line should have been taken and those who sincerely want help should receive that help. But for multiple offenders and those who OD multiple times, after the first time and assistance is given, do it again and you're on your own. The inmates are running the asylum. jmho.
Sadly, we can't save everyone and we're taking down a city in the process.
I bet if you started passing out needles in Milton or Hurricane or Salt Rock the junkies would find their way there.
Again, where have I suggested they don't manage outbreaks? That's not the argument I am making. Even Wake Co NC with a population of +1 million and growing has 1 needle exchange location. I think we are closer aligned in our opinions on this specific part of the conversation. The major difference between Wake Co is that they are not forced by default to carry the load of the entire central region of the state (which appears Htgn/Cabell is being forced to do)
IMO, this is exactly why communities that lack strong employers/economies (and need to attract them...aka Htgn) or communities with strong employers/economies (and dont want to lose them) really don't want "empirical data" showing migratory patterns of junkies coming in.
Your overall comments above suggest something WV continues to lack...Robust Resources. This is where my problems begin. Nothing I am reading about the programs there suggests anything has been managed appropriately. (Not a surprise at all IMO)
It doesn't require empirical data to drive into my old neighborhood to now see the shell of once was and the precipitous increase in junkie population. It doesn't require empirical data to read hypocritical comments of certain individuals suggesting the Huntington region should be forced to carry the load of the crisis, while other WV counties like Putnam & Kanawha (add Ky and OH counties across the river to this too) intentionally sit back, and form mouthpiece, Federal Grant funded "coalitions". Coalitions who seem more focused on soaking up needed funds/resources, simply to keep the junkies out of their backyard, and ultimately relieved to see the junkies migrate further down 64 (which they have). Instead of contributing to actual overall support & long term solutions for the entire region, they criticize and mock (which is about all bureaucratic, elitist snob coalitions are really good for) resource lean communities (like Htgn) for "ignoring data".
So we agree...more needle exchanges are needed.
I don't expect, say, Lincoln County, to have one. Same as I do not expect Lincoln County to have a hospital. It's always been a part of reality, especially in WV, that the population centers house the services.
I would figure the one in Wake NC goes mobile. That is what they do in Louisville. Technically it is one exchange....but they have a mobile unit that goes to areas with high addiction levels (pretty easy to find, just follow the EMS map of OD's).
A lack of robust resources only follows my belief that regardless of public health or "being nice", a needle is cheaper than a case of HIV.
I bet Kanawha County has an outbreak soon. The southern coalfields will too.
The deteriorating neighborhoods is another issue. Huntington has too much housing stock, and too much of the excess is in disrepair. Any type of homeless people or crooks will take advantage of that. Feel free to comment on how to manage that. Huntington should have been tearing down houses for 30 years. Here, our previously shitty neighborhoods are gentrifying. Hey @MichiganHerd , I said fvck it and bought a home. I specifically looked for a neighborhood I thought would soon gentrify, in mine the number of homes being fixed up just started outnumbering the homes that look like shit, I think I did alright...I will know in about 10 years. Huntington? 80k in population is never coming back.
Of course. Housing shortages in growing and thriving population centers are driving these opportunities.
All the more reason to have the mobile exchanges in rural areas you point out, to reduce overall influx of street zombies in one community.
i think me meant twat. yeah, twitching twat.
And WTF is a "twitching quack"?
The state legislature will have to have the courage to do that. That's no reason to shut down the Cabell one.
That's why Huntington should have long ago started thinning its housing stock.
People say eminent domain is expensive. Really? What is an unsellable, unwanted piece of property worth? $1k in Detroit is a good clue.
Ehhhh.
None of this really matters anyway. After reading the comments from last night's Democrat debate...we only have 11 years left to survive.
None of this really matters anyway. After reading the comments from last night's Democrat debate...we only have 11 years left to survive.
From what I've heard ..... one thing that really ups the price tag with tearing down many of those structures, is asbestos abatement/removal.
I never said it was easy. But if the city or the state can buy up prime land at prime prices for projects, surely they can find a way to buy up garbage and get rid of it.
Sorry, but I'm missing where I suggested, anecdotally or otherwise, that a needle exchange program increases drug use. What I am stating, based on my observations, is that huntington's needle exchange program has attracted drug users from the Charleston area since they ended their program.
Is it unreasonable to believe that if charleston banned ice cream and Huntington still sold ice cream that ice cream lovers from charleston would come to Huntington to get ice cream? These are transient, homeless, drug addicts. They don't care where the alley is located that they shoot up and sleep in. Access to free, plentiful needles are just the free toppings to help lure them to our ice cream.
Seems to me that a drug addict is going to use anything available to shoot up. They are addicted and DGAF how they get the drugs in them. If it means using a rusty, bent needle with blood dripping from it and the person who's blood is on the needle confesses s/he has AIDS, that drug addict MAY try and rub the blood off on their dirty clothes or do a quick rinse in a mud puddle or toilet before then using it to shoot up.
Yes. Addicts WILL use clean needles if available. But a lack of availability will not suddenly end their addiction.
