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West Virginia Drug Crisis Essay

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When looking at the drug crisis in West Virginia, it is a local problem that is affected by global aspects. In the Central Appalachian region, heart of coal country, has faced a painful decline. Within West Virginia there are 55 counties, while coal mining isn’t in all of the counties in West Virginia, the drug crisis is. The drug crisis isn’t just a global problem but a local to the United States but more specifically West Virginia. Globalization has affected the drug crisis in the 35th addition to the United States from the coal counties to the urbanized areas. Globalizations effects on the drug crisis in West Virginia can be traced from the declining use of coal, to prescription and illicit drugs, leading local institutions to come …show more content…

Republicans from the House Energy and Commerce Committee blame regulations created by the Environmental Protection Agency as the cause of coal communities suffering. Coal in many parts of the state is processed through underground mining. Underground mining is the utilization of machinery to create tunnels under the surface of the land. Underground mining is a practical form of engineering, the process of underground mining extracts coal as the machinery goes deeper into the earth’s surface, the coal is then placed carried to the surfaced through a “combined system of vehicle haulage and conveyor belts” (Mining 2012). West Virginia is one of the leading producers of coal in the United States, but with the collapse of both coal usage and prices it has created a financial crisis for the states coal based counties. With a 38 percent decline in West Virginia coal production topped with a 71 percent decline in prices since 2008 has drained the counties who relied on the income from coal taxes. With the decline in both coal production and prices it has “significantly reduced personal income received by those living in the West Virginia southern coal counties with a lesser impact in the north. ” (Kent 2016). This means that those living in the southern parts of West Virginia are more affected by the decline in the manufacturing of coal which

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