Jan. 11--CHARLESTON -- A Beckley physician is attempting to convince lawmakers to treat convicts with suboxone to break drug habits and ultimately reduce overcrowded conditions in prison.

Dr. Stephen Love, who runs a private practice and also works as an emergency doctor at several hospitals, including Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital, explained Sunday the idea is to provide treatment as soon as a crime is committed.

"It's much easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble," he told the Legislative Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority at the start of January interims.

A prescription drug, suboxone yields a mild opiate effect, sufficient to counter intense cravings that addicts undergo, the doctor told the panel.

At the same time, Love said, the drug is not powerful enough to cause euphoria, and that is one reason it is a better alternative than methadone, a practice that has come under increasing criticism by some legislators who are leery of it being dispensed at for-profit clinics.

Love, the son of former state Sen. Shirley Love, D-Fayette, who once co-chaired the committee, pointed to Gov. Joe Manchin's recent announcement of a $23.5 million grant, a mix of state and federal cash, intended to be used for substance abuse treatment this year.

Love suggested the money could best be applied to treating hooked inmates, restoring their lives, and reducing the population that is pushing West Virginia penal institutions to the breaking point.

And drug abuse certainly is no stranger in this state, he said.

West Virginia leads the nation in drug overdose deaths per capita and in methadone-related overdoses, while ranked 14th in illicit drug use besides marijuana, Love noted.

"We're talking about coal miners and we're talking about housewives," he said.

"We're talking about grandchildren who have access to their grandparents' medication."

Fifty-two percent of all inmates locked up in West Virginia are considered nonviolent, and most are there due to substance abuse, the doctor said.

Love suggested the Legislature get the maximum mileage out of the $23.5 million grant by focusing on an effective treatment strategy and using existing outreach programs.

Old ideas simply don't work, he said, over a failure to see what put folks in jail -- narcotics addiction, lack of employment and education, and living conditions.

Love told the panel that some patients come to his office and feign illness or injury to get a prescription. In fact, some patients as old as 92 have been used by family members to get drugs for resale on the streets when their blood tests revealed no prior use of a painkiller.

Under his plan, the patient pays $39 to undergo the suboxone treatment, which Love said has been proved effective in Ohio, where 62 percent of the inmates were discharged with success. Opiate addicts not using suboxone had a success rate of only 13 percent.

Gary Robinson, representing the West Virginia Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being, suggested the anti-drug campaign not zero in entirely on inmates.

"After the fact is simply not good enough," he told the panel. "We must continue to reduce and prevent."

Illegal drug usage in West Virginia cost the state some $1.86 billion in 2006 alone, and that included $470 million in direct costs, he said.

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