The program’s closure in 2018, however, had dire consequences for public health. HIV and hepatitis rates skyrocketed, eventually requiring CDC officials to travel to Charleston in 2021 to help the city contain the outbreak.

Then-CDC HIV Prevention Chief Dr. Demetre Daskalakis called the outbreak “the most concerning HIV outbreak in the United States.” 

The fight for evidence-based and person-first

Iris Sidikman, the harm reduction coordinator at the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia, said the reluctance to fund harm-reduction services has directly impacted organizations that go beyond providing syringe services.

“When you have a tool to give someone in a non-judgmental space, it can open a world of possibilities,” Sidikman said.  

In 2024, the Women’s Health Center applied to the Kanawha County Commission for $250,000 in opioid settlement funds twice, first through an online application and again at a public commission meeting. The clinic intended to use some the funds to provide increased naloxone training and education, cover costs related to screening and treatment of HIV and Hepatitis C and to fund a portion of clinical and programmatic staff salaries for the Harm Reduction Program, Sidikman said. Their application was denied without explanation. 

The Women’s Health Center also applied with Charleston City Council in August 2023 to create a syringe service program on Charleston’s West Side, but was denied due to fear of an “increase in drug use and crime.”

Research on harm reduction by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has shown that these practices reduce disease transmission and overdose rates, and experts believe politicians should look at the numbers more often. 

“What we want to do with data analysis… is to be able to produce the evidence to show to political power that these interventions are working and capable, they are saving many lives,” said RTI International Research and Public Health Analyst Barrett Montgomery. 

SOAR WV, another grassroots, Charleston-based harm reduction group, works to promote the health, dignity and voices of individuals who are impacted by substance use disorders, according to its website. SOAR and other organizations picked up the task of providing new syringes until the state Legislature passed Senate Bill 334 in 2021, which included strict regulations for running a syringe service program, such as requiring a West Virginia state ID in order to participate.

The city of Charleston also passed stipulations requiring that each syringe be uniquely labeled for tracking purposes. 

As of June 2025, West Virginia Health Right operates the only syringe-service program in Charleston, but according to one source, “doesn’t even begin to make a dent in the problem.”  

The political appetite is lacking because of a lack of information around the subject, says Dr. Susan Margaret Murphy, president of the Drug Intervention Institute in Charleston.

“Unfortunately, we are in a political climate where I don’t think research and scientific knowledge necessarily pleads the case. So sometimes it’s got to be kind of a heart-on-the-sleeve storytelling type of approach,” she said. 

Stigma and the struggle for support

In neighboring Boone County, Commissioner Brett Kuhn agreed. 

The county currently does not have any harm reduction services, and, so far, its three elected commissioners have not spent any of their $2.9 million in opioid settlement funds to provide them.

“I think in a rural setting, you’re going to see more pushback than you would in more of an urban setting,” Kuhn said. “I think with the syringes, it’s like people think we’re subsidizing the drug use, whereas with naloxone the attitude is more like, ‘well, we’re trying to help somebody that’s in trouble.’ And really, if you look at it, in both cases, is there any real difference between the two?”

Kuhn says that informing the public about how harm reduction works and its benefits to the community is key to fighting pushback. 

“You’ve got to get out ahead of the curve. You’ve got to get out there and get the information out,” Kuhn said. “I sometimes think we don’t do a good enough job of that.”

Kuhn said his county experienced the brunt of the nation’s opioid overdose epidemic firsthand. Its opioid mortality rate in 2023 was 82.0 per 100,000, the second-highest rate in West Virginia, according to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. 

Instead of harm reduction programs, the county spent its funds on paying off its regional jail bill, supporting a food pantry, a county arrest record-keeping system, a rapid response vehicle for EMTs, and a 25-bed expansion at Hero House, a faith-based sober living home in Madison.

Kuhn and officials in other counties say the vague nature of the state’s MOU overviewing how the money can be spent puts the duty of interpretation on local officials. The county did not hold special community meetings or town halls to gather input on how to spend the funds. 

But Kuhn says it’s rebuilding a sense of community that could help garner support for harm reduction services. 

“I think it’s sometimes the attitude is ‘well, those people don’t want to help themselves,’” Kuhn said, “[but] if they don’t want to help themselves, then what do I need to do to try to help? And I think in a certain sense, we’ve lost that sense of community, that we’re all in this together.”

Kuhn hopes that can change in the future.

West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.

The post Despite research, WV counties refuse to fund harm reduction with opioid funds appeared first on westvirginiawatch.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article presents a sympathetic view toward harm reduction programs and critiques the regulatory and political barriers limiting their effectiveness in West Virginia. It highlights the public health consequences of shutting down syringe service programs and emphasizes scientific evidence supporting harm reduction. The tone favors evidence-based, compassionate approaches to drug policy and health crises, implicitly criticizing conservative political opposition, such as the cited Republican mayor’s negative framing of harm reduction efforts. However, it maintains a largely factual reporting style with multiple sourced statements and avoids overt partisan language, placing it in a center-left position focused on public health advocacy.