At this past Monday’s Bridgeport City Council meeting when Police Chief John Walker was giving his annual report to the city’s governing body, it included discussion on drugs. That is not news.

 

Unless you’re living under a rock, you know drugs are a problem in Bridgeport. For those who think the problem is only relegated to other areas of Harrison County and the region, Walker and former U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld have said many times there’s no safe zones from the epidemic – here or in any part of West Virginia.

 

One thing Walker told Council during his presentation was something very alarming. Something he said he double checked because it just seemed so skewed.

 

“For every 100 people in West Virginia, there are 138 prescriptions written for painkillers,” said Walker.

 

Walker’s comments came on the heels of a meeting last week in front of the Harrison County Commission. At that time on Feb. 22, Attorney Russell Williams of the Charleston firm Pritt, Spano & Williams broke out numbers that were Harrison County specific. Williams was in front of the Commission as he’s looking for counties to sue drug companies for what appears to be a tidal wave of prescription drugs coming into Harrison County.

 

The numbers when I read them on line and in print made me shake my head in disbelief. When I heard Williams earlier this week on the Gary Bowden Show on 103.3 WAJR FM rehash the numbers I became angry.

 

Williams said it again – and please take this in for a moment. Between 2007 and 2012, the residents of Harrison County saw a handful of drug companies distribute 8.9 million oxycodone pills. Williams said that is the equivalent of every person in Harrison County – man, woman and child – getting a prescription every month for a six-year period.

 

Assume for a minute that there’s more to those numbers than presented. Perhaps there’s a calculation that makes it look worse. Maybe Williams’ figures are off a bit. Heck, let’s say he’s off by 50 percent. It doesn’t matter – those numbers are part of the reason we’re in the position we’re in right now. Assume he’s right as well and, again, we’re in the same position.

 

“That’s almost unbelievable,” said Walker when told of the numbers for Harrison County. “The numbers are unacceptable. When you think about it, the averages are counting kids and others who aren’t using. It is part of the problem we’re facing. We’ve got a problem here even if you don’t have those numbers in front of you.”

 

Here’s the thing where Walker said something I agree with 100 percent. And that’s about those who would argue about where the problem starts.

 

“You could argue all day about what’s caused this problem, but I’m more interested in doing everything to stop it,” said Walker. “Perhaps through this process there will be light shed on the situation because the numbers I have and the numbers you told me about are more than just cause for concern.”

 

Let me be clear about something: I don’t understand legal proceedings well enough to know what’s the next step here other than the County Commission is at least considering action on the matter. I don’t understand legal issues to know if this is the proper venue to address the issue. For that matter, I don’t know if the law firm involved is looking at a class action suit to the tune of millions of dollars. I don’t know what a court win or settlement would mean as far as helping those potentially addicted as a result of this in the form of rehabilitation and funds for education and interdiction.

 

I don’t know because it’s all still preliminary.

 

 

Here’s something else I definitely don’t know and that’s where to place blame for those mind-numbing numbers – and maybe there’s plenty of blame to go around. Certainly, there’s personal responsibility. To lay one’s own drug addiction problems completely at the feet of others is a misguided tool and one that will allow you and others to stay on a path of self destruction.

 

Dealers are definitely in the group that shares in the blame. If you visit our page on a regular basis, you’ll see frequent cases involving the sentencing of street dealers in the federal and sometimes state system. You used to see stories here a few times a month. Now, you see it a few times a week.

 

The user and the dealer pay the price in many forms and fashions – some sooner than later and some later than sooner. The stories we frequently run show the indictments, the pleas and the sentences for those group in the drug epidemic chain.

 

Then you have medical professionals who have been documented in the media as well that write prescriptions in the same manner some people fill out post-it notes at their offices. More than one doctor and more than one pharmacist in the state have been prosecuted for these very actions.

 

It’s a stain on their profession. And it paints unfairly with a broad brush the wonderful men and women who are involved in the medical and pharmaceutical professions.

 

You know what? The professionals that create this type of havoc should be punished and in my mind at perhaps a higher level. Educated individuals sworn to the public trust who violate that trust shouldn’t be treated to a higher standard of leniency because they’re wearing a shirt and tie.

 

I also wonder if there’s someone at the state level that should be monitoring the number of drugs going into counties individually or the state as a whole. If so, someone has dropped the ball and that person or persons need to be held accountable. If there is no one monitoring the distribution shop, it’s time for someone to begin handling that job and it should be paid for by the very companies that are providing drugs to our state residents.

 

For those that think doing that would break the bank and cause many prescription costs to go higher, check out where drug distributors are located. You won’t find them in the third floor of an old warehouse in a seedy section of town, but rather in their own swanky high rise or in the luxury portion of some Class A office space in most situations.

 

No one is going on the cheese line from one of these companies if they have to pony up the cash to make oversight work. And, again, if there is oversight, it’s not working and the state bears responsibility for that.

 

Let’s not forget the focus of Russell Williams’ attempt for a lawsuit – the drug companies that are well-removed from the poor farm as mentioned above. If these drug companies are culpable – and understand at this point it’s only an ‘if’ even with the numbers presented – and they see you only as a consumer to make money as opposed to a person needing help with a drug, then by all means, they should be held responsible too.

 

Adding a board room and a stock exchange listing to the shirt and tie combination shouldn’t provide anyone an extra level of security if harm can be proven for the sake of profit.

 

“Professionals and drug companies, if guilty of doing something wrong, should be held to the same standards for punishment,” said Walker, who also serves as chairman of the Harrison County Violent Crimes and Drug Task Force. “In a sense, they may not be more dangerous, but they’re just as dangerous as the person selling them. That drug dealer is getting their drugs from some place.”

 

Chances are in Harrison County during that recent span of time listed above that a dealer had some opportunities to get drugs from some place. Perhaps nearly 9 million chances.

 

Are those numbers fuzzy math? New math? It’s neither. It’s sad math and it’s failing our community.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Chief John Walker at Monday's Bridgeport City Council meeting, while oxycodone pills are shown in the middle photo. Bottom photo, from July 2013, show Bridgeport Police taking files from the office of Dr. Edita Milan along Main Street.