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The Republican candidate for Sheriff in Berkeley County, West Virginia was arrested for possession of heroin after an ambulance removed him from his house unresponsive and police found heroin in his bedroom and a needle in his arm.

His name is John Orem. His website promised to address 'recent incidents' soon. He was released on $5000 bail and will be arraigned next week.

Welcome to my home state.

People worry about voter fraud (which is almost non-existent these days) but when I was a teenager more people voted in Logan County, West Virginia than lived there, much less were registered to vote.

I once wrote a short story for a writing class in college in which a West Virginia State Policeman assaulted a drunk guy for dancing with a duck on a string in a bar.

My teacher told me it was too 'outrageous' and no one would believe it. My teacher was from the Midwest, not West Virginia and the story was based on something I witnessed in a bar in Anawalt, WV when I was in high school. It happened. I saw it.

When I retired back in 2010 someone asked me if I would be 'going home' to West Virginia.

It took all my years of training and all my restraint not to laugh in their face.

McDowell County, West Virginia, where I spent the first 18 years of my life was called, by the natives, 'the free state of McDowell' and for good reason.

Not much the state or federal government said or instructed happened there. If heroin had been around back then, our sheriff would have been shooting up.

McDowell County (circa 50's and 60's of the last century) was like the whole country would be if Donald Trump were President. No limits, no rules, no sense of decency and order.

I was young. I didn't realize how crazy things were, how out of whack. Looking back I know.

When I was there McDowell County had nearly 60,000 people living there. Last census there were a little over 28,000. Coal is dead. So is McDowell County. Trump will probably get 40,000 votes there in November!!!