HOLDEN, W.Va.—One by one, Sammy Stafford lost three half-brothers to drug overdoses over the past eight years.
His is one of many families devastated by addiction in West Virginia, the epicenter of a nationwide fentanyl crisis.
Since 2019, synthetic opioids, mainly fentanyl, have killed more than 350,000 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the state has seen a drop in the rate of unintentional overdose deaths, West Virginia leads the country in deaths per capita.
At 54, Stafford has worked for 27 years in the coal mining industry, toiling 12 hours a day, six days a week for years, though now his schedule is more reasonable….
West Virginia Coal Miner Describes Losing 3 Brothers to Drug Overdoses
