Ohio Valley ReSource
A federal judge in West Virginia has issued a temporary restraining order to stop a new state law that would put strict restrictions on needle exchange programs.
In a court filing issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Chambers issued a temporary restraining order to block the implementation of
Senate Bill 334. Gov. Jim Justice signed the measure into law in April, with an effective date set for July 9.
The pending law doesn’t explicitly wipe out harm reduction programs, but would set standards that operators say could bar access to care.
Senate Bill 334 would require programs to apply and become licensed and would also limit the number of needles it hands out by requiring participants to return their used needles to get a clean one in exchange. It also would require participants to show state-issued identification.
News by Eric Tarr | West Virginia Record wvrecord.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wvrecord.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Harsh New Restrictions in West Virginia Show Just How Fragile Needle Exchange Programs Can Be
Courtesy of SOAR
Joe Solomon is the co-director of SOAR, a syringe-exchange and harm-reduction services group in Charleston, the capital of largely poor and rural West Virginia. When I spoke to Solomon in late March, SOAR was handing out large supplies of clean needles to hundreds of injection drug users (IDUs), many of them experiencing poverty and homelessness, in a region long known for having an overdose fatality crisis as well as the kind of HIV outbreak among IDUs that has become rare in the age of widespread needle exchange. SOAR also distributed large amounts of Narcan, which people who use drugs can easily administer to one another to reverse opioid overdoses.
Ohio Valley ReSource
This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. For more stories from Mountain State Spotlight, visit
West Virginia’s drug overdose crisis is getting worse.
But instead of working on legislation to address root causes and increase access to treatment and overdose reversal medication, West Virginia lawmakers spent the session focused on bills that experts and advocates say will make things worse for some of the most vulnerable West Virginians.
“People are hurting and there’s things we could be doing to help them,” said JoAnna Vance, a recovery coach and advocate for the West Virginia Recovery Advocacy Project. “But we spent the majority of our energy this legislative session fighting bad bills.”
The legislative session is over, but West Virginia s overdose crisis rages on | West Virginia timeswv.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timeswv.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.