On Aug. 11, when President Donald Trump was asked about rescheduling cannabis on the federal narcotics list, he said he’d “heard great things” about medical cannabis — especially for pain — but that the policy is complicated.

West Virginians know too well how right he is. The question is who will help him navigate the complexity in a way that actually helps people. The good news is that, in 2025, West Virginia sent the answer to Washington: Sen. Jim Justice and Rep. Riley Moore, both R-W.Va.

They know what’s at stake because they lived it with us.

In 2017, West Virginia had the nation’s highest rate of opioid overdose deaths — about 50 per 100,000 people, nearly three times the national average. That same spring, headlines reported that fatal overdoses had overwhelmed our state’s burial

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