Baltimore Metropolis Council members mentioned Monday they’d maintain a sequence of hearings on the town authorities’s response to its overdose epidemic, following an examination by The New York Instances and The Baltimore Banner.
The general public security and well being committees introduced they’d meet no less than 4 occasions on the subject within the coming months, beginning in July.
“On the finish of the day, we wish to save lives,” Councilman Mark Conway, chair of the general public security committee, mentioned in an interview final week. “If we’re going to fake all the things is OK, we’ll by no means make any adjustments, and I feel that will be a mistake.”
The examination, revealed final month by The Instances and The Banner, discovered that overdoses in Baltimore — pushed by the introduction of fentanyl into the drug provide — had been killing individuals at a price by no means earlier than seen in a serious American metropolis.
Baltimore’s demise price from 2018 to 2022 was practically double that of another massive metropolis, a statistic a number of high leaders, together with Mayor Brandon Scott, had not recognized about till reporters informed them. Almost 6,000 individuals had been killed prior to now six years.
Town as soon as had an aggressive overdose prevention technique, however as officers turned preoccupied with different crises, a few of their efforts stalled, the examination discovered.
Within the interview final week, Mr. Conway additionally mentioned he would discover altering the town’s finances to place extra money into overdose prevention, although he mentioned it was not clear how possible such adjustments can be.
In Baltimore, the mayor writes the town’s finances, however the Metropolis Council can vote to chop or improve funding for applications. Finance officers have warned there’s restricted flexibility throughout the $4.1 billion finances. Final 12 months, the council’s adjustments affected lower than 1 p.c of the finances.
Overdoses had been talked about sparingly in Mr. Scott’s preliminary finances proposal, which included $500,000 to broaden scientific companies and buprenorphine therapy by the Well being Division, “totally funding” the emergency medical service unit of the Hearth Division and “sustaining the present degree of service” for the Well being Division’s scientific service workforce.
On Monday, nevertheless, the town introduced a $45 million settlement with the pharmaceutical firm Allergan, which was one in every of greater than a dozen corporations it had sued, accusing them of serving to gas the opioid dependancy disaster. Maryland had beforehand settled with the businesses, however metropolis leaders had opted out of the state settlement to pursue their very own case. Hundreds of thousands of {dollars} are earmarked within the metropolis’s settlement settlement for particular applications that assist individuals combating dependancy.
The lawsuit in opposition to different corporations is about for trial in September.
Conway mentioned he wouldn’t enable public testimony on the listening to, in an effort “to not jeopardize” Baltimore’s ongoing litigation with different pharmaceutical corporations.
“I’m searching for the town to elucidate merely the place we’re, not how we received right here,” Mr. Conway mentioned.
Councilwoman Danielle McCray, the chair of the well being committee, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Requested final week concerning the potential for hearings, Mayor Scott mentioned his administration “welcomes the oversight.”
Within the three weeks because the Instances/Banner examination was revealed, metropolis officers have been repeatedly questioned throughout Metropolis Council committee conferences about their response to overdoses.
They’ve pointed to a number of steps they’re taking, together with the plan to create an opioid coordination workplace to handle the settlement cash and an “opioid stat” database to trace overdose deaths.
“The silver lining of the article, as uncomfortable because it was, was that it did give plenty of consideration to the challenges we face within the metropolis,” the town’s well being commissioner, Dr. Ihuoma Emenuga, mentioned on Thursday, including that her division had seen extra individuals reaching out within the wake of the reporting and searching for methods to assist the town’s efforts. “We are going to see extra assets, we are going to see extra consideration, and we are going to see the needle shift on this.”
Lillian Reed and Meredith Cohn contributed reporting.
