CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The director of EMS operations for the Charleston Fire Department is reporting a decline in drug overdoses in the Capital City.
In April 2017, 56 overdoses were recorded in Charleston. In April 2018, the overdose number was 22, according to information Lt. David Hodges provided on Thursday’s “580-LIVE with Charleston Mayor Danny Jones.”
For June 2018, the number of overdoses were 18.
Hodges gives credit for the declines, in part, to the ending of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department’s needle exchange program earlier this year.
“There’s a noticeable difference in crime rates going down. The overdoses are going down. Our abandoned (house) fires — which is a crime, arson is a crime — are going down,” Hodges said.
In 2017, Hodges cited statistics showing 28 abandoned structure fires in Charleston.
From January to Apr. 2 of this year, the abandoned structure fire number was 24. Since then, a time that coincided with the shutdown of the needle exchange, there have been ten total additional fires at abandoned buildings.
He said when fewer used needles are on the streets, Charleston’s firefighters are safer.
“We’re the ones that were seeing an influx of syringes on the streets,” Hodges said. “We were seeing an influx of ‘persons down’ calls.”