Battling Heroin With A Hearse And A Prayer

Our Take A Number is looking at problems around the world — and people trying to solve them — through the lens of a single number.

In Huntington, W.Va., the number is 10. As in, the rate of babies born with a drug dependency there is 10 times the national average.

It's a number that shows the magnitude of the opioid crisis in this blue collar city. It's also one of the numbers that has prompted two very different people in this community to say, "Enough."

Each in their own way, has set out to get heroin addicts into recovery. Their methods are unorthodox. One uses brown-bag lunches and the Bible. The other, an old black hearse and a casket.

Let's start with Dwayne Wood. And his hearse.

A black, 1988 Buick hearse with the words "Inject Heroin. Reject life," stenciled on the side. On the back, it says "Heroin kills. Is this