WV first lady: "We are losing young people, destroying families"

With the governor set to announce his substance abuse plan on Monday at the Drug Summit in Charleston, first lady Gayle C. Manchin is weighing in with her opinions on the work of the West Virginia Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being. It's the partnership, along with Gov. Joe Manchin, who have developed the plan to counter substance abuse in West Virginia.

"They have created an investment plan to make significant reductions in the social and financial burden these issues places on all West Virginians," Mrs. Manchin wrote in the HuntingtonNews.net. "More importantly, it encourages and explains how each of us, in our own unique role, can become involved at some level in the state wide prevention system."

She added: "What we do know is that there is not a person in the state that has not been touched by the destructive force of substance abuse in some way -- a family member, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor -- it is at epidemic proportions and growing every day. This is not someone else's problem anymore."