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Nearly a year ago, news outlets began reporting hopeful news: Overdose deaths across the country and in West Virginia were experiencing a sharp decline.
“That’s really good, and we should celebrate that,” then-Gov. Jim Justice said in September 2024. “But at the same time we’re still losing people, aren’t we?”
Now, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated a drop of about 42% in overdose deaths during the most recently reported 12-month period in the state.
In the 12 months ending February 2025, 766 West Virginians died from drug overdoses, according to the CDC estimate. That’s compared to 1,331 during the 12 months that ended in February 2024.
The deaths in 2024 are more than four times the number of West Virginians who died from overdoses two decades ago.
But Congress, with the support of West Virginia’s entire delegation, passed legislation earlier this month that puts at risk key drug treatment and recovery programs that helped lead to the decline.
Bringing overdoses down from a record high
West Virginia officials like Dr. Stephen Loyd, head of the Office of Drug Control Policy, have credited the decrease to initiatives including widely distributing naloxone, expanding treatment and starting drug courts.
Health workers and people in recovery have formed grassroots coalitions. The state drew down federal grant funding and got special government permission in 2018 to use Medicaid for naloxone and peer recovery mentors. People in recovery started working as mentors and opened sober living homes.
“I think the biggest differentiator is the sense of community in the state, because it’s special,” Loyd said.
But the decline doesn’t mean the end of the overdose epidemic. Part of the decrease is attributable to the state coming down from a record high of more than 1,500 in 2021. Twenty years ago, in 2005, the state recorded 184 overdose deaths, according to CDC data.
During the pandemic, the state received federal COVID relief funds that helped fund addiction programs. That funding is ending.
Now that President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is about to make massive cuts to Medicaid over several years, the hard-fought progress made could stall or reverse.
More deaths predicted as Congress cuts funding to services
Health analysts and advocates say that the spending bill threatens the survival of some health care providers, and some may have to close or cut services like addiction treatment.
People who are addicted to drugs or alcohol are more likely to be covered by Medicaid, a federal and state government insurance program for low-income or disabled people.
The cuts will lead to about 1,000 more overdoses across the country each year, according to a memo to leaders in Congress by researchers from Boston University and the University of Pennsylvania.
And that’s only based on the number of people who’ll lose access to medication for addiction cravings, not other kinds of treatment.
A professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, Dr. Sylvia Martins, who researches addiction policy, predicts deaths will occur because the legislation cuts treatment programs funded by Medicaid and defunds federal grants that pay for medication like naloxone.
Martins expects to see stable rates then an increase in overdose deaths over the next two years.
“West Virginia is one of the states that has made the best progress in changing the tide of the opioid epidemic,” she said. “So we don’t want that to plateau or be reverted.”
West Virginia’s representatives in Congress, Sen. Jim Justice, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Rep. Riley Moore and Rep. Carol Miller, all voted for the spending bill, which aims to make permanent the tax cuts Trump pushed for during his last term.
Where we go from here
In Princeton, the county seat of Mercer County, Gov. Patrick Morrisey held an event earlier this month to celebrate the latest overdose numbers.
“We are beginning to make progress,” the governor said. “But we can’t rest on our laurels.”
Morrisey noted widespread concerns about the Trump spending bill’s impacts on Medicaid, but said a rural health care fund in the legislation will help West Virginia continue progress on the drug problem.
The governor also said that opioid settlement funding, which his office helped secure when he was attorney general, can also help some organizations fighting the overdose crisis.
Candace Nelson, chief clinical officer of community programs for Southern Highlands Community Health Center, and other community members attended the governor’s event.
The crisis intervention team Nelson coordinates, which connects people who’ve survived overdoses in Mercer, Wyoming and McDowell counties to treatment, benefits from the opioid settlement funding.
Each year, her office holds its own celebratory events to honor people lost to overdoses.
Kids have written their parents’ names or drawn pictures and hung them on windchimes. Their grandparents often bring them.
Nelson said, “The part that I’m trying to wrap my head around right now is we’re talking about the success of the services that we’ve been providing, so it only makes sense to me that we continue to support those programs.”
People struggling with addiction or other mental health issues can call or text HELP4WV at 1-844-HELP4WV or 1-844-435-7498 or chat online.
Reach reporter Erin Beck at erin@mountainstatespotlight.org
