CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — For years, West Virginia has had the nation’s highest rate of drug overdose deaths. Now the state is wrestling with another, not entirely unrelated health emergency: a spike in HIV cases related to intravenous drug use. The surge is being attributed at least in part to the cancellation of a needle exchange program in the county where the capital of Charleston is located. Needle exchanges offer clean syringes to injection drug users who have not been able to quit the habit altogether. Critics of the programs say they don’t do enough to prevent or stop drug abuse.
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