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DEA Offices & Telephone Nos. Charleston—304-347-5209 Clarksburg—304-623-3700 Wheeling—304-234-7772

Drug Situation: Largely rural, West Virginia's most pronounced drug problems involve the abuse and clandestine manufacture of methamphetamine, marijuana consumption and cultivation, and pharmaceutical drug diversion and abuse. Cocaine, crack and MDMA are available in most areas of the state. Drug distributors in West Virginia are uniquely placed to take advantage of sources of supply from both nearby eastern cities like Baltimore, Pittsburgh or Washington, DC as well as large mid-western cities such as Columbus, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan.

Cocaine: Cocaine hydrochloride and crack cocaine are widely available in most West Virginia cities. Crack cocaine abuse generally remains confined to low and low-middle income individuals, but crosses all ethnic lines. There is some violence associated with the crack trade in the state. Cocaine availability is limited to large-retail or small-wholesale quantities. Source areas for cocaine are more varied than for other drugs consumed in the state and are largely based on the trafficker's location within West Virginia.

Heroin: Both the demand for and the availability of heroin are very limited throughout West Virginia. Small enclaves of long-term heroin addicts exist, who rely on one another to procure supplies of heroin from secondary source cities such as Philadelphia and Baltimore. The heroin sold in West Virginia typically retains the street/brand name and packaging of the Philadelphia or Baltimore-area supplier.

Methamphetamine: Clandestine methamphetamine laboratory activity in West Virginia has increased threefold in the past several years. Previously, methamphetamine manufacture appeared to be centered in the Panhandle region of the state, but has expanded to include other areas of northern West Virginia as well as some clandestine laboratory sites in the southeastern portion of the state bordering Kentucky and Virginia. In addition, methamphetamine distributors in West Virginia often share Mexican sources of supply with distributors in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley region.

Club Drugs: There is increased demand for MDMA throughout West Virginia, but abuse remains fairly concentrated near Morgantown, the location of West Virginia University. Demand for MDMA in college towns is sufficient to ensure that thousands of the pills reach West Virginia every month. Because of West Virginia's remote terrain, the area is purported to host numerous private "rave" parties but attendance at large-scale, publicized raves has been disappointing to promoters.

Marijuana: Both imported and domestic, locally-cultivated marijuana pose a serious drug threat in West Virginia. Although the state ranks 37th in population in the U.S., West Virginia consistently ranks in the top ten states for marijuana eradication. West Virginia commonly serves as a source area for domestic marijuana. The Appalachia HIDTA was established initially to combat marijuana cultivation in the tri-state area - Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia - although that mission has expanded.

OxyContin and Other Prescription Drug Diversion: West Virginia abusers of the pharmaceutical drug OxyContin garnered a great deal of media coverage in the past year or more. West Virginia, along with neighboring and nearby states Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, were among the first areas in the United States to experience widely-publicized problems with OxyContin diversion and abuse. Pharmaceutical drug abuse in general, however, has always been an enormous concern in West Virginia, particularly in the southern region.

DEA Mobile Enforcement Teams: This cooperative program with state and local law enforcement counterparts was conceived in 1995 in response to the overwhelming problem of drug-related violent crime in towns and cities across the nation. There have been 409 deployments completed resulting in 16,763 arrests of violent drug criminals as of February 2004. There has been one MET deployment in the State of West Virginia since the inception of the program: Charles Town.

DEA Regional Enforcement Teams: This program was designed to augment existing DEA division resources by targeting drug organizations operating in the United States where there is a lack of sufficient local drug law enforcement. This Program was conceived in 1999 in response to the threat posed by drug trafficking organizations that have established networks of cells to conduct drug trafficking operations in smaller, non-traditional trafficking locations in the United States. Nationwide, there have been 22 deployments completed resulting in 608 arrests of drug trafficking criminals as of February 2004. There have been no RET deployments in the State of West Virginia.

Other Enforcement Initiatives: The Appalachia HIDTA provides support to enforcement initiatives in the southern region of the state.

Special Topics: The Washington/Baltimore HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) supports and assists in the funding of a multi-agency enforcement task force and an Intelligence group in Washington, DC. In addition, the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department has its own Major Narcotics Branch, and other drug and violent crime-related enforcement operations in place.

More information about the Washington Division Office.

Sources

Factsheet last updated: 2/2004

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