Charleston — The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed the nomination of Dr. Rahul Gupta as the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy/White House Drug Czar.
Gupta’s confirmation makes him the first physician to serve as White House Drug Czar. It brought immediate calls of support from West Virginia officials.
The Kanawha County Commission released a joint statement regarding Gupta’s confirmation.
The statement reflects the thoughts of Commission President Kent Carper and Commissioners Ben Salango and Lance Wheeler.
“The announcement of Dr. Gupta being named the White House Drug Czar is great news for the State of West Virginia,” the statement begins.
“Dr. Gupta served Kanawha County as the Chief Health Officer from 2009 until 2014 and led Kanawha County through the 2014 water crisis. His leadership abilities are impeccable. He truly cares about addiction problems and will ensure that services to rural areas will be at the forefront of his platform.
“We cannot thank Senators Manchin and Capito enough for leading the effort to make this happen. We congratulate Dr. Gupta, his wife Seema, and two sons, Arka and Drew, on this great announcement,” the statement concluded.
Gupta most recently served as the senior vice president and chief medical and health officer at the March of Dimes. In addition to heading the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, he served as state health officer from 2015 to 2018.
Democrat U.S. Senator Joe Manchin and Republican Shelley Moore Capito both spoke in favor of Gupta at Senate hearings on his nomination.
Following confirmation, Manchin wrote on social media, “Dr. Gupta led the fight against the opioid crisis in #WV & I’m proud that he will be leading the way nationally in combatting the drug epidemic.”
Capito posted, “Congratulations @DrGuptaMD on your confirmation to lead @ONDCP. Looking forward to continue working together to foster innovative solutions that can help pull our state and nation from the grip of the addiction crisis.”