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West Virginia's opioid crisis transcends partisan politics
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Joe Solomon, Democratic candidate for city council and co-director of the non-profit Solutions Oriented Addiction Response, stops by a syringe disposal box outside the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Charleston, W.Va. Solomon had spent three days eating at soup kitchens and sleeping under bridges and in parking lots while interviewing residents about the changes they’d like to see in the city’s response to issues like homelessness and substance use. - photo by AP Photo/Leah Willingham
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Dr. Frank Annie sees desperation in his hospital, where 30- and 40-year-olds come in with organ failure after injecting opioids with dirty needles. Joe Solomon finds it in the faces of those who line up in the church gyms and parking lots where he passes out overdose reversal drugs. Sheena Griffith encounters it on the streets she navigates with a car packed with HIV test kits and disinfectant for sanitizing syringes.