Recovery for West Virginians should be the goal of opioid policy

A man walks past a billboard at a drug recovery center in Youngstown on July 14, 2017 in Youngstown, Ohio. (Spencer Platt | Getty Images)

Turning a weakness into a strength isn’t just a wise saying that makes a good motivational poster or positive social media post. When it comes to those struggling with addiction, turning a weakness into a strength is a matter of life and death. For a state that is seeing some small rays of light and hope against the still dark and dusty reality of an opioid crisis, turning the loss of West Virginia’s addicts into recovered citizens for a state that is not can afford to lose more population is the existential threat of our time.

Dr. Stephen Loyd, director of the West Virginia Office of Drug Control Policy since August 2024, discusses the challenges of measurable outcomes. More specifically, how a doctor like him can often give measurable results along with a prescribed course of treatment after a diagnosis, but with addiction there is no such conversation. “Besides, we don’t have that. We see results differently,” he told the AP in an interview after assuming his new role as the “Drug Czar” of West Virginia. “We don’t know how effective we’ve been spending our money because I don’t think we’ve talked much about looking for meaningful results.”

The fact that Dr. Loyd is at the helm of a state that is still battling addiction in itself should be a measurable outcome in a very important way. While outspoken every chance he gets, Dr. Loyd, drug czar, is also Dr. Loyd, recovering drug addict. His story of how he was referred to treatment instead of the harsher penalties others in his situation received is a key piece of how he views his responsibilities. “I get a pass because I have MD after my name, and I’ve known that for a long time… And it’s not fair.”

While the letters after the person’s name and credentials were an unfair modifier in Dr. Loyd’s case, the addict-to-lawyer story is an important example to highlight. It also begs the question, if the person responsible for the state’s opioid problems can step up and provide leadership at the highest levels, what other roles might recovered people play?

If we are to have measurable results in what will be an endless war on addiction, they must be measurable in what the people involved can do after addiction.

there are three levels for recovery. The first is the abstinence stage, which is what politicians and the public only want to get to, various versions of “just stop being an addict so you’re not a problem”. The outside world often thinks that an addict who stops using is no longer an addict, a harmfully ignorant assumption that results in a lack of support and funding for programs that go beyond “just getting these drug users to stop using smoke.”

The second stage shows why the first stage is both insufficient for personal recovery and inconvenient for policymakers and an often hospitalized public: the repair stage. This stage is often the messy part, because as the person in recovery comes to “feel better” without their addiction, the root causes often need to be addressed, such as trauma, environment, situations and other things that need as much treatment as addiction did. This stage is not short, often requiring several years of various treatments and support. A support that requires more funding and more support, and a patient and understanding public and political system that shows a shocking lack of both.

The third stage, however, is where weakness can be turned into strength. Sometime in years three or five of recovery, the person enters the growth stage, which lasts the rest of the person’s life in recovery. hopefully It is here that the experience can lead to new skills, new perspectives and a new drive to be a productive person both in the private life of the recovered person as well as in employment, self-improvement and in the community.

This is where Dr. Loyd, and this is where long-term planning for addiction recovery should be focused. There is only one West Virginia drug czar, but hundreds of counselors, health workers, support staff and dozens of other roles are needed that recovering citizens could not only fill, but keep them moving through their growth stage .

It will take money and funding, lots of money and funding, to place recovering West Virginians in skills programs and educational opportunities and get them working against the very crisis that changed their lives forever. People will turn against it. It will require a large initial investment not only in money, but also in time, as the recovery cycle means that those starting today may not see the workforce for three, four, five or more years. People will back it off.

To this push back must come a firm response that this stone wall guarantees that nothing changes and that the problem is perpetuated. Not only will the price increase with procrastination, but the human toll will also increase, while the naysayers will continue to never help anyone, ever, with anything. At the same time, point to the acting director of West Virginia’s Office of Drug Enforcement Policy telling anyone who will listen, “I did it, and so can you.” A message and an example not only for struggling people, too many have been pushed aside as not worth the effort, and are mockingly thought to achieve what they have brought upon themselves , that recovery is only one more day away.

Instead of the usual rhetoric and addiction, establishing a measurable outcome of how many former addicts can recover from West Virginia in the next five years as workers against the opioid crisis where they came from is something worth worth setting a goal and working on. Turning the terrible human toll of the opioid crisis into the strength of a generation that overcame and became the solution is worth every effort we can put into it.

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