According to the National Policy on Drug Control, in 2007, West Virginia had 113 arrests for drug offenses that were made by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); in 2006, there were 4,100 drug violations in West Virginia.

In the majority of cities in West Virginia, cocaine and crack are easily accessible. Crack abuse is mostly seen in poorer individuals. Still, its abuse can be seen in different ethnicities. West Virginia’s rural neighborhoods have been significantly affected by the distribution of crack distribution and the violence that accompanies it.

In West Virginia, the demand and availability of heroin are small. It is mainly limited to small groups of heroin addicts who are long-time users; these groups depend on each other to get heroin from sources in Baltimore and Philadelphia.

West Virginia constantly ranks among the highest (top ten) states for marijuana seizures and eradication. Consequently, marijuana use and growth is perceived as a severe drug threat throughout the state.

Per the 2005-2006 statistics from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 123,000 of West Virginia citizens, ages 12 or older, admitted to using an illegal drug in the past month. In addition, 44 percent of West Virginia 12th graders admitted to using marijuana at least once in their lifetime.

State and federal laws have forced the operators of illegal meth labs to decrease their activities in West Virginia. In past times, the Panhandle area of West Virginia was the main focus of meth manufacturing; since then, it has spread to other areas of northern West Virginia plus some southeastern regions. In 2007, the DEA and state and local authorities cited 40 meth lab incidents in West Virginia, a decline from 213 in 2005. In 2007, Federal agencies apprehended 5.7 kilos of cocaine, and in 2006, under the DEA's Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program, more than 57,000 marijuana plants were destroyed.

West Virginia had 5 drug courts in operation or in the planning stage as of April 2007; 1 had been running for a minimum of 2 years; 2 had just been created; and 2 were being planned. In 2006, 62.5 percent of the defendants serving a Federal sentence had committed a drug violation; over half of these cases were regarding crack cocaine. Per the West Virginia Division of Corrections (DOC), West Virginia had 4,647 prisoners as of June 30, 2007. Further, on this date, West Virginia had 646 inmates imprisoned for drug-related offenses; this represented 11 percent of the entire DOC prisoners.