Dr. Stephen Loyd
CHARLESTON – West Virginia’s sixth drug czar in seven years will be a nationally renowned doctor and addiction medical specialist who was portrayed in a streaming miniseries about the opioid crisis.
During his weekly administration briefing Wednesday, Gov. Jim Justice said that Dr. Stephen Loyd, the chief medical officer for Cedar Recovery in Tennessee, will be West Virginia’s new permanent director of the Office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP) effective Monday, Aug. 12.
“Today, I am announcing the appointment of Dr. Stephen Loyd,” Justice said. “Many of you probably know Stephen Loyd. I think he is an incredible man and he is going to be the director of our Office of Drug Control Policy. I think you’ll find he brings a lot of experience and a lot of stuff to the table.”
Loyd, an internal medicine and addiction medicine physician, has been the chief medical officer for Cedar Recovery since 2018. He is also the vice president of the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners and served from 2015 to 2018 as the drug czar for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
In recovery from his own addictions to opioids and benzodiazepine since 2004, Loyd’s life story became the inspiration for actor Michael Keaton’s role in the Hulu miniseries “Dopesick,” a fictional account of the opioid crisis told from the perspective of those with substance use disorder, the doctors and health professionals, and the companies who marketed and distributed prescription opioids.
“I am deeply honored to join the Office of Drug Control Policy,” Loyd said Wednesday afternoon in a prepared statement. “Together, we will continue to advance data-driven, comprehensive strategies to combat substance abuse and improve the lives of West Virginians. I want to thank Gov. Justice for his trust in appointing me to this role, and I look forward to collaborating with our dedicated team under the leadership of (Department of Human Services) Secretary (Cynthia) Persily and continue to make a meaningful impact in West Virginia communities.”
Loyd was one of several panelists at the Greenbrier Resort last week for the Southern Legislative Conference, speaking on the topic of implementation of successful crisis intervention programs. It was announced at that panel that Loyd would be the new ODCP director, though the Department of Human Services would not confirm that last week, directing all questions to the Governor’s Office. While the ODCP works within DoHS, the position is appointed by the governor.
Loyd makes the sixth ODCP director since Justice took office in 2017. Dr. Matt Christiansen, the previous ODCP director, was promoted in January 2023 to state health officer and commissioner of the Bureau of Public Health. Rachel Thaxton has served as interim ODCP director since Christiansen’s promotion.
The first director of ODCP, former Huntington ODCP director Jim Johnson, only served five months before stepping down at the beginning of 2018. Its second director, Dr. Michael Brumage, served less than two months before stepping down. The office has also gone through two interim directors. Bob Hansen, the director of addiction services at Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and Marshall Health, was appointed ODCP director at the end of 2018. Christiansen was appointed in 2020.
ODCP, created when the Legislature passed House Bill 2620 on April 8, 2017, is charged with developing a state drug control policy and strategic planning and advising the governor and the Legislature. Since taking office, Justice created the Governor’s Council on Substance Abuse and Treatment and the Jobs and Hope program, which works to get those with substance use disorder into treatment, recovery, and back into the workforce.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, West Virginia had the highest drug overdose mortality rate in the nation based on 2022 numbers. However, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, West Virginia saw a .14% decrease in the predicted 12-month count of drug overdose deaths between February 2023 and February 2024, showing slight improvement. Nationally, the overdose death rate dropped 5% in 2023.
“Black, white, rich or poor, it doesn’t matter. It affects every last single one of us and it is still a bad situation in West Virginia,” Justice said. “It’s still a bad situation all the way across the globe. Absolutely, we’ve still got tons of work to do. I think Stephen Loyd will bring a whole lot to the table. We’re really excited about coming on board.”