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Attorney General Patrick Morrisey Speaks to Tyler County Middle School Students

By Mark Cochran - Staff Writer | Nov 9, 2022

On the afternoon of Friday, October 28, 2022, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey spoke to the students of Tyler County’s Middle School. The event took place in the school gymnasium. Mr. Morrisey began his remarks with a description of the duties of his office. He characterized his job as a really cool job because he gets to help people. He told the assemblage of young people that his job is to help with the law and to make sure that consumer protection laws and civil rights laws are upheld, and to make sure that all the laws are followed and that people are not taken advantage of by others who don’t want to follow the law. He said he and his staff are involved in litigation on behalf of the citizens of West Virginia. Mr. Morrisey offered an analogy to the students. He said, “If you don’t follow the rules here at school, you have to go to the Principal’s Office. If people don’t follow the rules of the State, they have to come to my office.”

Attorney General Morrisey then spoke to the matter of illegal drugs and drug use. He posed the question to the students, “How many of you have family members who have been affected by the opioid crisis?” A concerning number of hands went up; perhaps as many as twenty percent of the young people present raised their hand. Mr. Morrisey spoke honestly to the young people about the dangers of illegal drug use and the fact that people are dying every day from drug use; dying from overdosing or dying from contaminated illegal drugs. He spoke of a recent incident in New York City where cocaine laced with fentanyl killed several people. He also encouraged the students to eschew the practice of vaping, citing examples of fentanyl being used in vaping and people dying from the experience. Mr. Morrisey told the students that many of the ingredients for illegal drugs come from China, the final manufacturing is done in Mexico, and the finished product is smuggled across the southwest border and into the United States for sale and consumption. He asked the students to stay away from drugs and stay away from vaping. Attorney General Morrisey told the students, “We live in the greatest state in the nation. You have an amazing future in front of you. You are the future leadership. Thank you for everything you’re doing to make Tyler County an amazing place to live.”

The Attorney General then delivered to the young people a rousing, heartfelt, and inspiring speech about principles that guide a person and a code to live by. He spoke of honesty and integrity. He spoke of purpose and encouraged his listeners to give great thought to what they want to be and what they want to achieve in their lives. He encouraged them to fully explore their possibilities and their potential. He spoke of the importance of having passion for their goals, and the values of practice and perfect practice, of persistence and perseverance. He spoke of the invaluable lessons to be learned from one’s mistakes, and the importance of doing so. He encouraged the students to have a positive attitude, saying “Life is a lot more fun to live if you’re positive. Being negative is not the way to success.” He spoke of partnership and partnering and of the value of receiving help from others and in turn giving help to them. He spoke of philanthropy and the importance of giving back to the community and a concern for the welfare of others. He talked about play and the importance of a balance between work and play, and he talked about prayer and spirituality and the concept that we’re all part of something bigger than ourselves. He encouraged the students to develop their own code for success. He said, “The best part of my job is to be here right now trying to inspire the next generation of leadership.” It was a good speech and the Attorney General’s delivery was enthusiastic and upbeat.

Subsequent to the Mr.Morrisey’s address to the students, there was an opportunity to converse with him in the hallway outside the gymnasium. When asked, the Attorney General said his office consists of about one-hundred eighty people, including eighty to eight-five lawyers. The balance of his staff are paralegals, investigators, and the all important secretarial and clerical staff, without which no office could function. Consumer protection and Medicaid fraud are two major elements of the office caseload.

When asked about monies recovered from drug companies and others in legal actions relating to the opioid crisis and how those funds are to be used to reclaim the wreckage of lives and communities left in the wake of the scourge, the Attorney General outlined a three part effort consisting of education, detoxification, and law enforcement, and with leadership drawn, at least in part, from local government.