ARTICLE 5T. OFFICE OF DRUG CONTROL POLICY.

§16-5T-1. Short title.

This article shall be referred to as the West Virginia Drug Control Policy Act.

§16-5T-2. Office of Drug Control Policy.

(a) The Office of Drug Control Policy is continued. The Director of the Office of Drug Control Policy shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The director of the office is administratively housed in the Department of Human Services and directly reports to the Office of the Governor, and works in cooperation with the State Health Officer, the Bureau of Public Health, and the Bureau for Behavioral Health.

(b) The Office of Drug Control Policy shall create a state drug control policy in coordination with the bureaus of the department and other state agencies. This policy shall include all programs which are related to the prevention, treatment, and reduction of substance abuse use disorder.

(c) The Office of Drug Control Policy shall:

(1) Develop a strategic plan to reduce the prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse and smoking by at least 10 percent;

(2) Monitor, coordinate, and oversee the collection of data and issues related to drug, alcohol, and tobacco access, substance use disorder policies, and smoking cessation and prevention, and their impact on state and local programs;

(3) Make policy recommendations to executive branch agencies that work with alcohol and substance use disorder issues, and smoking cessation and prevention, to ensure the greatest efficiency and consistency in practices will be applied to all efforts undertaken by the administration;

(4) Identify existing resources and prevention activities in each community that advocate or implement emerging best practice and evidence-based programs for the full substance use disorder continuum of drug and alcohol abuse education and prevention, including smoking cessation or prevention, early intervention, treatment, and recovery;

(5) Encourage coordination among public and private, state and local agencies, organizations, and service providers, and monitor related programs;

(6) Act as the referral source of information, using existing information clearinghouse resources within the Department, relating to emerging best practice and evidence-based substance use disorder prevention, cessation, treatment and recovery programs, and youth tobacco access, smoking cessation and prevention. The Office of Drug Control Policy will identify gaps in information referral sources;

(7) Apply for grant opportunities for existing programs;

(8) Observe programs in other states;

(9) Make recommendations and provide training, technical assistance, and consultation to local service providers;

(10) Review existing research on programs related to substance use disorder prevention and treatment and smoking cessation and prevention, and provide for an examination of the prescribing and treatment history, including court-ordered treatment, or treatment within the criminal justice system, of persons in the state who suffered fatal or nonfatal opiate overdoses;

(11) Establish a mechanism to coordinate the distribution of funds to support any local prevention, treatment, and education program based on the strategic plan that could encourage smoking cessation and prevention through efficient, effective, and research-based strategies;

(12) Establish a mechanism to coordinate the distribution of funds to support a local program based on the strategic plan that could encourage substance use prevention, early intervention, treatment, and recovery through efficient, effective and research-based strategies;

(13) Oversee a school-based initiative that links schools with community-based agencies and health departments to implement school-based anti-drug and anti-tobacco programs;

(14) Coordinate media campaigns designed to demonstrate the negative impact of substance use disorder, smoking and the increased risk of tobacco addiction and the development of other diseases;

(15) Review Drug Enforcement Agency and the West Virginia scheduling of controlled substances and recommend changes that should be made based on data analysis;

(16) Develop recommendations to improve communication between health care providers and their patients about the risks and benefits of opioid therapy for acute pain, improve the safety and effectiveness of pain treatment, and reduce the risks associated with long-term opioid therapy, including opioid use disorder and overdose;

(17) Develop and implement a program, in accordance with the provisions of §16-5T-3 of this code, to collect data on fatal and nonfatal drug overdoses caused by abuse and misuse of prescription and illicit drugs, from law enforcement agencies, emergency medical services, health care facilities and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner;

(18) Develop and implement a program that requires the collection of data on the dispensing and use of an opioid antagonist from law enforcement agencies, emergency medical services, health care facilities, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and other entities as required by the office;

(19) Develop a program that provides assessment of persons who have been administered an opioid antagonist;

(20) Report semi-annually to the Joint Committee on Health on the status of the Office of Drug Control Policy.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, and to facilitate the collection of data and issues, the Office of Drug Control Policy may exchange necessary data and information with the bureaus within, the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, the Department of Administration, the Administrator of Courts, the Poison Control Center, Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Board of Pharmacy. The data and information may include, but is not limited to: data from the Controlled Substance Monitoring Program; the criminal offender record information database; and the court activity record information.

§16-5T-3. Reporting system requirements; implementation; central repository requirement.

(a) The Office of Drug Control Policy shall implement a program in which a central repository is established and maintained that shall contain overdose information via an appropriate information technology platform with secure access for the purpose of making decisions regarding the allocation of public health and educational resources. In implementing this program, the office shall consult with all affected entities, including law-enforcement agencies, health care providers, emergency response providers, pharmacies, and medical examiners.

(b) The program authorized by this section shall be designed to minimize inconvenience to all entities maintaining possession of the relevant information while effectuating the collection and storage of the required information.

§16-5T-4. Entities required to report; required information; Continuation of data dashboard.

(a) To fulfill the purposes of this article, the following information shall be reported, within 24 hours after the provider responds to the incident and via an appropriate information technology platform, to the Office of Drug Control Policy:

(1) The date and time of the overdose;

(2) The approximate address of where the person was picked up or where the overdose took place;

(3) Whether an opioid antagonist was administered;

(4) Whether the overdose was fatal or nonfatal;

(5) The gender and approximate age of the person receiving attention or treatment;

(6) The suspected controlled substance involved in the overdose;

(7) Whether the individual has a history of a prior overdose, if known; and

(8) The type of drug used in the overdose.

(b) The following entities shall be required to report information contained in §16-5T-4(a) of this code:

(1) Health care providers;

(2) Medical examiners;

(3) Law-enforcement agencies, including, state, county, and local police departments;

(4) Emergency response providers; and

(5) Hospital emergency rooms.

(c) The data collected by the office pursuant to this subsection shall be made available to law enforcement, local health departments, and emergency medical service agencies in each county.

(d) Entities who are required to report information to or from the office pursuant to this section in good faith are not subject to civil or criminal liability for making the report.

(e) For the purposes of this section:

“Information technology platform” means a dashboard constructed for or by the state to allow input, collection, data analysis, and display of the required data within 24 hours. The dashboard shall be scalable for additional future requirements with minimum engineering and development time. There is a preference that the dashboard be compatible with artificial intelligence to maintain monitoring.

“Overdose” means an acute condition, including, but not limited to, extreme physical illness, decreased level of consciousness, respiratory depression, coma, or death believed to be caused by abuse and misuse of prescription or illicit drugs or by substances that a layperson would reasonably believe to be a drug.

 “Opioid antagonist” means a federal Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for the treatment of an opiate-related overdose, such as naloxone hydrochloride or other substance that, when administered, negates or neutralizes, in whole or in part, the pharmacological effects of an opioid in the body.

(f) Office of Drug Control Policy shall continue to compile the data that is reported, or that it otherwise has access to, in a public facing data dashboard. This dashboard shall also include the following:

(1) Every project that receives state funding, federal funding, opioid settlement funds, and other relevant funding sources for substance use disorder beginning in fiscal year 2024;

(2) Data on the outcomes of funded community-based outreach programs, harm reduction programs, criminal justice substance use disorder programs, harm prevention programs, and other funded program, to evaluate program effectiveness and inform program improvement;

(3) A comparison of program effectiveness by county, region, rural or urban, and demographics to identify best practices and areas for improvement and share these findings with stakeholders to support evidence-based decision making;

(4) Alerts to a rise in fatal and non-fatal overdoses in a given area or region to enable resources to be deployed to the area;

(5) Track and interact with medication assisted treatment providers, including the number of patients in and out of treatment, to support the coordination of care and effective care for individuals with substance use disorder;

(6) Public facing information, including maps, charts, and other visualizations, to increase transparency and engagement with stakeholders

(7) The location of every substance use disorder provider on a statewide basis to provide individuals linkage to care;

(8) Non-fatal overdoses within 24 hours of the incident, with data collected from multiple sources, including hospitals, first responders, and law enforcement agencies;

(9) Fatal overdoses with data collected from multiple sources including hospitals, first responders, and law enforcement agencies;

(10) Identification of trends from the data that has been collected, including but not limited to fatal and non-fatal overdoes, use of opioid antagonist, trends in illicit drugs causing overdoses, and other relevant data that can be used to inform the allocation of resources in an area;

(11) Emergency department visits and first responder calls for fatal and non-fatal overdoses, and use this data to identify trends and hotspots and inform resource allocation;

(12) Data regarding program effectiveness in both the short-term and long-term with both immediate and long-term outcomes for individuals receiving services and support for ongoing program improvement and refinement; and

(13) The dashboard shall be updated daily to reflect current data, changes in provider location, and any other updates as needed.

§16-5T-5. Promulgation of rules.

The director may propose rules for promulgation in accordance with article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code to implement the provisions of this section. The Legislature finds that for the purposes of §29A-3-15 of this code, an emergency exists requiring the promulgation of emergency rules to preserve the public peace, health, safety or welfare and to prevent substantial harm to the public interest.

§16-5T-6. Community Overdose Response Demonstration Pilot Project.

(a) The Director of the Office of Drug Control Policy shall establish a Community Overdose Response Demonstration Pilot Project, to be continued for a period of four years, to develop model government programs to promote public health and general welfare through a comprehensive community-based response to drug overdoses in communities across West Virginia.  

(b) The purpose of the demonstration pilot project is the development of community programs that will focus and use existing resources of government agencies to create outreach programs to educate concerned family and community members, including first responders, to recognize an opioid overdose, and to immediately respond with life-saving measures and quick response teams comprised of law enforcement, emergency medical personnel, and a trained opiate case manager to conduct an in-home visit within one week of an overdose.

(c) The objective of the demonstration pilot project is to improve public health by addressing drug overdoses through a comprehensive community development plan. The plan should serve as a model to improve public health and education through a comprehensive community-based response to drug overdoses across the state.   

(d) Communities that experience a high frequency of drug overdoses, compared with national averages as determined by the Office of Drug Control Policy, are eligible for participation in the demonstration pilot project.

(e) The demonstration pilot project shall be developed and administered by the Office of Drug Control Policy to encourage state and local agencies and community groups to work together and coordinate government and community responses to drug overdoses, and identify new and existing funds, personnel, and other existing resources available for the demonstration pilot project. Demonstration projects may include:

(1) Outreach programs to educate concerned family and community members, including first responders, to recognize an opioid overdose and to immediately respond with life-saving measures. This outreach may include basic information, training in the proper and safe administration of Naloxone to reverse drug overdoses, and the distribution of Naloxone kits; and

(2) Quick response teams comprised of law enforcement, emergency medical personnel, and a case manager trained in substance use disorder to conduct an in-home visit within one week of an overdose. The quick response teams would work cooperatively to triage and assess overdose survivors and provide linkage to treatment and services for rehabilitation with the goal of reducing repeated overdoses.

(f) The demonstration project may receive funding and other committed resources from federal, state, or local government and community groups.

(g) A community desiring to participate in the demonstration project shall submit a plan to the director that provides for the following elements:

(1) Community participation;

(2) Development of a community action plan with measurable, achievable, realistic, time-phased objectives;

(3) Implementation of the community action plan; and

(4) Evaluation of results.

(h) By majority vote, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Substance Use Disorder Policy created pursuant to Executive Order 10-17 may select one or more communities from those that submit plans for participation in the demonstration pilot project.

(i) Commencing December 1, 2018, and each year thereafter, each participating community shall give a progress report to the director and commencing January 1, 2019, and each year thereafter, the director shall give a summary report of all the participating communities to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability as established in §16-29E-1 et seq. of this code, on progress made by the pilot demonstration project, including suggested legislation, necessary changes to the demonstration pilot project, and suggested expansion of the demonstration project.

(j) This section is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the state, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(k) The demonstration project terminates on July 1, 2022.

§16-5T-7. Enforcement.

(a) The Office of Drug Control Policy may assess a civil penalty for violation of the reporting requirements set forth in §16-5T-4 of this code. If the Office of Drug Control Policy determines that an entity is in violation of the reporting requirements, then a civil penalty of not less than $500 no more than $1000 per occurrence may be assessed.