Painkiller abuse continues in southwest Virginia; black market in legal methadone spurs overdoses

"Rising coal prices have meant jobs and money for southwestern Virginia's mining towns. But a cloud hangs over those communities too: prescription painkiller abuse," The Washington Post reports in a 3,400-word story today, with multimedia interviews with miners.

Staff Writer Nick Miroff reports from Tazewell County, Virginia's easternmost coal county: "Nearly a decade after OxyContin slammed into southwestern Virginia and much of Appalachia, the abuse of prescription painkillers in the region is worse than ever, police and public health officials say. ... A record 248 people died of overdoses in Virginia's western region in 2006, more than those who died from homicides, house fires and alcohol-related car accidents combined. ... The problem is most acute in Virginia's poorest rural areas."

"In what is perhaps the most troubling sign of the problem's intractability, the single deadliest drug in the region in 2006" was methadone, which is given to addicts and has spawned a big black market, Miroff reports. "Methadone was linked to 78 deaths in western Virginia in 2006, and experts say that whatever ground was gained against the illegal use of OxyContin is being lost, engulfed in a widening circle of abuse that extends to painkillers, antidepressants and other prescription drugs."

Here's part of the story's coal angle: "Drug use by miners who snort or shoot up underground has been a growing cause for concern among state regulators, and a law approved last year in the General Assembly imposed stringent drug-testing policies. All newly hired miners must be screened, and random testing requirements have increased. Those who fail risk losing their miner's license. The impact of the new policies was immediate." Mine operator Noah Vandyke told Miroff, "I can't find nobody to work. The younger generation, you can't hardly find one that will pass a drug test." (Read more)