Virginia
‘This is my life’: New state drug czar officially starts work in West Virginia • West Virginia Watch
Starting this week — and for the first time since January 2023 — the West Virginia Office of Drug Control Policy has a permanent director.
Dr. Stephen Loyd, an internal medicine and addiction medicine physician from Tennessee, began work on Monday after being named as head of the agency last month.
With a medical degree from East Tennessee State University, Loyd previously worked as the chief medical officer at Cedar Recovery in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. He also sat as chair of the state’s Opioid Abatement Council. Before that, he served as Tennessee’s top drug policy expert, holding the position of opioid czar for the state’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Use for about two years.
Loyd’s first act as head of the state Office of Drug Control Policy was presenting to lawmakers on the Joint Standing Committee on Health, where he shared what his approach will be in his new office and what he believes could help the state be successful in confronting the ongoing drug and overdose epidemic.
“West Virginia has been ground zero for the opioid crisis. It’s where it started. It’s where it’s continued today, and there have been a lot of really great people in this state that have worked really hard and because of whatever reasons, we are where we are, right?” Loyd said. “I think it would be a great thing if West Virginia showed the rest of the country how to get out of this crisis, and I think that we can do that.”
An integral part to confronting the epidemic, Loyd said, is increasing attention on measurable outcomes of what works when it comes to addiction. He said the state needs to get “creative” in approaches and ensure that responses are coordinated and strategic, with communication between different agencies that deal with people impacted by substance use disorder.
The first places he plans to look at, he said, are the state’s criminal justice system and Medicaid.
“There’s no state in the United States that’s going to address the opioid crisis effectively in their state without addressing criminal justice. It’s not going to happen,” Loyd said. “So many people are imprisoned in our jails and our penitentiaries in the United States that are secondary to substance use disorder. That number is so big, it won’t matter what you do outside of there, if you don’t address it there, we will be failures, I promise you that.”
When people who have substance use disorder are released from incarceration, they are 40 times more likely to overdose and die in the days after their release than others in their communities, Loyd said.
“That is one of the biggest gaps that we have right now,” Loyd said. “That is low hanging fruit, and we can go after that, but we’ve got to have quality places in our community that are treating people, that accept Medicaid, that have standards of care that I think that this legislative body can put in place to ensure this happens. I’m going to bring those ideas before you, I promise you that in short order.”
Generally, Loyd said, the state needs to improve its use of data analytics. Loyd said he would like to see the state make “a small investment up front” to create a “roadmap” for response.
Loyd previously worked as a voluntary co-chair of The Helios Alliance, an Alabama-based organization that is using “innovative, transformative [and] evidence-based technologies” to confront the opioid epidemic while educating the public on interventions. He is not currently listed on the organization’s website as a co-chair and it’s unclear when he left that position.
In March, Loyd told KFF Health News that he believes statistical modeling and artificial intelligence can be used to create a simulation of the opioid crisis that could predict what kinds of programs would be most effective at saving lives. That modeling, he said, can help direct local officials on how to best invest money they receive through opioid settlement funds. It’s unclear where the efforts to create this modeling — which was estimated to cost about $1.5 million for Alabama — currently stands. According to KFF, the Helios Alliance was also “in discussions” with leaders in Tennessee and West Virginia to create simulations.
When it comes to getting creative with responses, Loyd said leaders should be looking at policies and laws that already exist and potentially using them in a new way. He referred to mental hygiene holds, which allow for people who have the potential to harm themselves or others being held for several days to undergo psychological evaluation.
If that law could be used for someone who injects drugs — which, he said, presents a clear danger to the person — providers could use that time to try and get the person into a system of recovery. To do that, however, there must be a dependable system in place for them to enter into. He said he plans to start immediately learning about West Virginia’s recovery infrastructure and what challenges exist there.
Loyd told lawmakers that part of what drives his dedication to addiction work is his own experiences with the disease. The inspiration for Michael Keaton’s character in the Hulu limited series “Dopesick” (based on the 2018 book of the same name by journalist Beth Macy), Loyd has been in recovery from opioid and benzodiazepine addiction for 20 years.
He wants to ensure that, through his work, people who live with substance use disorder are afforded the same opportunities he was to enter a system of recovery that works and reclaim their lives.
“This is my life,” Loyd said. “I wake up every morning with one goal, and that’s to help as many people find recovery as humanly possible. That’s it. I don’t care really about anything else.”
Different people, Loyd said, will have different paths to recovery. The important thing is ensuring that there are sound and dependable systems in place for them to utilize, no matter what their path looks like.
“We have to talk about evidence-based prevention strategies that are going to work. And guys, I don’t care about what the politics are behind it. I don’t care about what the push is behind it,” Loyd said. “I want to do things that work and that save people’s lives and give them an opportunity to do the things that I’ve been given an opportunity to do in my life.”
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Virginia
Eastern Michigan WR Oran Singleton Jr. Commits to West Virginia
West Virginia has landed its second commitment out of the transfer portal, and its first on the offensive side of the ball.
Sunday evening, Eastern Michigan wide receiver transfer Oran Singleton Jr. announced his pledge to the Mountaineers.
This past season for the Eagles, Singleton caught a team-high 64 passes for 639 yards and two touchdowns. Prior to arriving at Eastern Michigan, Singleton played one year at Akron and then made the move to the junior college level to play for Hutchinson CC. There, he led the team in receptions (31) and was second in yards (419).
West Virginia will continue to add to the wide receiver room in the coming days and weeks as they look to replace the departure of Justin Robinson along with the potential departures of Traylon Ray Ric’Darious Farmer and Hudson Clement.
Singleton will have one year of eligibility remaining.
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Virginia
WVU loses Hansberry, beats Mercyhurst in non-conference finale
Still without Tucker DeVries, Sunday’s game against Mercyhurst would be West Virginia’s final opportunity to figure things out ahead of their holiday break, followed by the gauntlet that is the Big 12.
While the Mountaineers would ease past the Lakers, they couldn’t do it without suffering another injury. Starting center Amani Hansberry was injured in the opening minute and did not return as West Virginia beat Mercyhurst 67-46 at the WVU Coliseum to close non-conference play.
The Mountaineers persevered the early departure of Hansberry by getting inside on the Lakers. After a Jonathan Powell 3-pointer, eight of WVU’s next 13 points came at the rim as they took a 16-7 lead in the opening eight minutes of action.
While the Lakers would be able to keep the West Virginia lead in single digits, a late 11-3 run helped West Virginia into halftime with a 35-22 lead.
While West Virginia shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, the second half would have a much different feel to it.
West Virginia made only one basket, and that came on a score from Eduardo Andre just a minute into the second half. After that, though, West Virginia’s offense went silent, and it allowed the Lakers to get back into the game.
Mercyhurst went on an 8-0 run from the 17:23 mark until the 14:46 mark of the second half, as West Virginia’s lead was cut to 38-30. The Mountaineers would respond appropriately, though, going on a 16-0 run themselves, pushing the lead to 24 with 8:13 to play.
During the run, it was a plethora of players who got involved for the Mountaineers. Five different players scored during the run, including Javon Small, who scored on a fastbreak dunk after a steal from Joe Yesufu. The dunk would be Small’s 1,000th career point.
Mercyhurst countered with a 5-0 run, but that didn’t faze the Mountaineers in the slightest. West Virginia scored the next nine points as they continued to lock down on defense.
Mercyhurst would score only 11 points in the final 14:45 of the game, shooting 22 percent from the field in the second half and 28 percent from the field on the afternoon. West Virginia held Mercyhurst to shoot only 5-for-17 from beyond the arc.
The Mountaineers shot 48 percent from the field despite struggling mightly from three as they shot 5-for-19 from beyond the arc. Small led West Virginia with 19 points on the afternoon.
West Virginia now will be off until Dec. 31, when they open Big 12 play on the road against No. 8 Kansas.
Virginia
Virginia woman falls victim to bitcoin scam, loses more than $30,000 – WTOP News
A Richmond, Virginia, woman lost more than $30,000 after police say she fell victim to a scam.
Click here for updates on this story
RICHMOND, Virginia (WTVR) — A Richmond, Virginia, woman lost more than $30,000 after police say she fell victim to a scam.
CBS 6 Crime Insider Jon Burkett spoke to Frank Oley, her financial adviser and Greg Wade, a Richmond detective about how this happened.
The woman got an email which appeared to be from PayPal.
“It was about the purchase of some type of malware and if you didn’t want it to call a certain number,” Wade said.
She then called the number and got swindled.
“After the transaction was done, he said, ‘You added too many zeroes,’ and, ‘Oh, my God, I’m going to lose my job, it’s Christmas time and I have kids,’ laid it on thick to her. This client being such a nice, honest and decent person felt sorry for this guy,” Wade explained.
The woman felt so bad she withdrew a total of $34,300 from two banks in an effort to pay for what she thought was her mistake.
The scammer instructed her to load the cash into a bitcoin machine along Azalea Avenue. It took her two hours and 873 separate transactions to do.
Detective Wade got a search warrant and told the store to shut the machine down. A representative came to open it, and the woman’s money was still there.
Her money is being held as evidence for now, but she will get it all back.
“The good news is with George, the Richmond City Police Department, we got the money back,” Oley said.
Wade says the scammer was traced to a location outside the United States.
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