Tackling substance abuse

The Herald-Dispatch, Huntington: West Virginia admittedly has a long way to go toward getting a grip on the state’s rampant substance-abuse problem and developing a strategy that provides people the help they need to pull themselves out of addiction.

But as state officials try to tackle the issue — and there’s no doubt they should — they might want to look toward Oregon and its approaches as a guide. In the Beaver State, helping addicts get the treatment they need is viewed not only as the right thing to do in terms of saving lives, but also as a practical way to save money in the long-term.

Surely, West Virginia officials can’t object to either of those outcomes.

The consequences of high addiction rates are well known to West Virginians. ...

Oregon’s drug overdose death rate is less than half of West Virginia’s, and about 50 percent lower than Kentucky’s. Oregon admits more than twice as many addicts for treatment as Kentucky — 48,833 compared with 21,474, although their overall populations are similar, The Courier-Journal found, and Oregon residents are much more likely to receive intensive treatment.

Perhaps the biggest factor in Oregon’s approach is that its Medicaid program covers substance abuse treatment, whereas Kentucky and a few other states do not, with just a few exceptions. That, in essence, makes treatment available to far more people. The result, Oregon officials told The Courier-Journal, is that those higher numbers of people receiving treatment will have lower costs for other medical reasons.