MARTINSBURG – Local officials claim success with High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program which launched in June for Berkeley and Jefferson counties.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said the program is important to combat heroin because "every person in the panhandle probably has experiences or knowledge of a personal event or person who's been lost to this."

"I'm worried it's taking away a generation of West Virginians," Capito said. "We're seeing a lot of overdoses and deaths. We have the highest number of overdose death rate in the nation. It's extremely concerning."

Sen. Capito has been a major proponent of the HIDTA program in designated counties in an effort to stymie the flow of drugs into West Virginia and has voiced concerns over the heroin epidemic that has hit the state.

"I think what you're seeing happening is that the accessibility of prescription drugs has been curbed," Capito said. "From cracking down on pharmacies and doctors illegally selling or prescribing pain pills, script-shopping, people have moved to heroin."

In response to the prescription drug epidemic, Capito said "the prescription registry system has been helpful in cracking down on script-shopping and in congress we're getting ready to pass a very large additional recovery act to try to get the resources to the states to create more vibrant programs in a bi-partisan way."

The HIDTA federal grant program started in 1988 with the passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act and gives funds to areas designated at a high risk for drug trafficking by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Berkeley and Jefferson county are now included under the Washington-Baltimore HIDTA.

In addition to police grants, the senator is also adamant that enforcement needs to be accompanied by treatment and prevention measures.

"There are other things we can be doing like prevention, certainly we should have local treatment options, drug courts can be successful as well as medical alternative treatments like suboxone," Capito said. "I would like to see the money help, I mean if you're just putting people behind bars, are you really solving the issue or are you just post-poning the problem?"

In a HIDTA assessment from the federal government, Berkeley County was identified as particularly susceptible to heroin trafficking and emphasized treatment and prevention.

"The problem is rampant in the eastern panhandle, people are really trying to get solutions and that's where HIDTA really helps bring in resources, coordination and training between agencies," Capito said.

The money has been a welcome addition to the State Police and the results appear positive with over $200,000 of drugs seized in June.

"This is more than we expected," Captain Eric Widmyer of the West Virginia State Police said. "It's allowed us more time to road patrol, thanks to HIDTA."

West Virginia State Police are encouraged by the program's success and the money has alleviated some of the department's concerns.

Due to staffing and funding, a lot of time troopers "don't have time to road patrol with running from one 911 call to another," Widmyer said. "We have a staff of 25 when we really should have 40."

The troopers involved have taken to working overtime to help with the HIDTA objectives.

"Five days a week, these are regular troopers working 8 to 10 hour days," Widmyer said. Because of the program, "the troopers have received special training and on days off, they can do road patrol thanks to HIDTA."

Thanks to HIDTA and increased road patrols, in June these six troopers have initiated 202 traffic stops on roads that have been identified as major drug trafficking routes from the Washington-Baltimore area into the eastern portion of West Virginia.

"We look at Interstate 81 and Interstate 70 as the heroin highway," said Floyd Pond, Deputy Director of Management Coordination of Washington-Baltimore HIDTA. "These recent funds have been made available for the troops and I'm really impressed with the West Virginia State Police."

"We had some collaborative training efforts, they're very engaged," Pond said. "Hopefully we'll be able to continue support this effort."

Interstate 81 remains a concern for drugs traveling into the state and HIDTA hopes to continue the efforts.

"West Virginia catches a narrow stretch of Interstate 81 but it's a good chokepoint," Pond said. "The money supplied is from $250,000 to $300,000 and will carry the program through the end of the calendar year."

The state's troopers have been a major factor contributing to the success of the program but along with enforcement, treatment and prevention remains a concern.

"One of our goals is to identify users and push them towards treatment," Pond said. "We're developing a process to identify those users. There's a lot of work to be done but it is inspiring to work with those folks.

In the one month the program has been active, six West Virginia State Troopers seized $283,038 dollars worth of illegal narcotics entering the state and saw 46 felony drug charges filed, primarily aimed at heroin.

The United States has 60 percent of the population living in a county identified with a HIDTA program, according to the HIDTA website.