Hello,
My name is Dr. Norman Wood. I am the former physician director for the W.Va. Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
I am attempting to open a new West Virginia state hospital where we can adequately treat what I call “the MIDAH” (mentally ill, drug addicted, and homeless). Currently, many of these people are held in our prisons and jails after violations of criminal codes, and in those prisons and jails they do not receive the medical care that is needed to effectively treat their mental illnesses or addictions.
I will explain why.
Approximately 40 percent of our inmates have a mental illness diagnosis. Most are mild, including minor depressions, anxiety, etc., which can easily be treated by WVDCR staff. However, 10 percent have serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, severe Borderline Personality Disorder, severe PTSD, etc.
These severe cases do not receive the individualized care in prison that is needed if we are to have any hope of them leaving confinement and living a normal life, which many of them can.
Also, about 65 percent of our inmates are addicted to narcotics and have a substance use disorder diagnosis, and between 60 to 70 percent of the inmates are serving time for drug-related charges. Another 10 to 15 percent are serving time for property crimes usually associated with drug use.
The average time served is three years, so, we are looking at 70-plus percent of our inmate population that are mentally ill, drug addicted, or both.
Iceland has the lowest incarceration rate of any nation at 35 per 100,000. The United States averages 664 per 100,000. West Virginia has 731 per 100,000 incarcerated. West Virginia has the highest incarceration rate of any independent democratic country in the world. We also have the highest drug overdose rate per capita of any state in the U.S.
Anyone who thinks that incarcerating the drug addicted in prison will help clean them up is terribly mistaken. Drugs are smuggled into prison regularly and are sold there. The drug-addicted inmates still have access to drugs. They will never get clean while in prison, and that’s a fact.
About 95 percent of our homeless population in the homeless camps are either mentally ill, drug addicted, or both, and that is a conservative number. They are the true “MIDAH”. These people are trapped in their own hells and cannot get out due to their mental illnesses and/or addictions.
Many have anosognosia where their brains are not capable of recognizing that they have a problem. To them, you are the one with the problem, not them. And these people will take handouts, but they will refuse any real help in just about every way.
They will not allow anything to interfere with their lifestyle, where they have access to drugs or live in their delusional mental state.
And if anyone thinks the community mental health clinics are the answer, does not understand the true nature of the problem. Can anyone honestly say we are doing better now than we did 30 years ago? That answer is no. We now have decades of data that show we are failing in almost every metric.
So why are we failing? Why do almost every drug addicted person resume drugs after treatment? We now know the answers about addiction.
The National Institute of Health, National Institute of Drug Abuse, and other facilities, over the past several years have been studying the damage caused by narcotics on the brain. We now know that narcotics, including marijuana, have a neurotoxic effect on the brain, especially the pre-frontal lobe of the brain. The pre-frontal lobe is the area of the brain where our decision making, problem solving, impulse control, and inhibitions are made.
We now have proof from the use of fMRI/PET Scans that the pre-frontal lobe of the brain is damaged by narcotics, and we can now measure this. That means we can quantify this damage.
Dr. Rita Goldstein of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York is the national and international leader in this research. I spoke to Dr. Goldstein recently.
Dr. Goldstein’s studies also show the brain can heal itself if enough time is allowed from the insult of narcotics, meaning abstinence from narcotics. We can now prove that the brain starts to heal in three to four months after abstinence, but it takes one to two YEARS for the brain to completely heal before normal function returns to the pre-frontal lobe and other areas of the brain.
The brain and central nervous system are the slowest healing organs in our bodies.
This is why the 30-to-90-day inpatient drug detox and rehab clinics are failing. The addicted brains are not given enough time to heal and to begin to make better decisions in their choices. This is why up to 60 percent of patients released from community detox and rehab clinics relapse in the first month. And up to 90 percent will relapse in the first year.
So, who are we helping?
The family nightmares continue with no hope in sight for their loved ones who continue to backslide despite everything that is attempted to help them. Family savings are sucked up in an attempt to find a solution for a loved one’s addiction or mental illness. Many of these loved one’s overdose and die; they are part of the remaining 10 percent.
We are losing four West Virginians daily, and about 1,400 a year.
Now we know why they can’t get away from the drugs. They can’t in that short amount of time during a community-based detox or rehab. Their brains haven’t been given enough time to heal.
And that is the other thing, we can now measure that improvement with a follow-up fMRI/PET Scan. We can now truly say to a person who has struggled for years with addiction that they are actually getting better.
And they can see it with their own two eyes.
No more lip service from someone who feels you are getting better; now we can actually see it. This is very empowering to a person who has struggled with addiction. This gives them real hope and self-resolve to continue the fight. And as they heal, they get stronger.
The only problem with this is that we have no place in the state of West Virginia to put these people where they can improve. Currently, the “MIDAH” that have violated a law are housed in our prisons and jails. We must bring back a state hospital if we are going to ever have any chance of helping these people to where they can someday return to a normal life.
Now, a little bit about myself. I am a former WV State Trooper. I am also a former special agent for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, San Francisco. In 1988, I made the largest drug seizure in U.S. history. If you search Special Agent Norman Wood on YouTube, there is a video of that time. I have four novels on Amazon about my time in the government. I am also an inventor; I have four awarded U.S. Patents for safety harness designs.
As a physician, I have been the medical director for the VA near Seattle. I have also assisted in running 14 urgent care clinics in the Seattle area. One clinic was on Aurora Avenue where the Green River Killer got his prostitute victims and another clinic was on Capitol Hill where the riots took place.
I have treated thousands of “the MIDAH”.
In closing, with my law enforcement and medical background, I bring a unique perspective to this very important problem for our state, country, and “the MIDAH”.
And I know what to do about it.
Sincerely,
Dr. Norman Wood
I can be found on Facebook and you can message me there.
