On Friday, July 7, the Hogan-Rutherford Administration of Maryland announced their plan to allocate over $22 million to the heroin and opioid epidemic fight that the state is currently up against.
Like many other states in America, drugs are a leading cause of death in Maryland. Opioid overdoses rank with cancer, strokes, and heart attacks as the top killers in the state, a report by the Associated Press stated in April. Working with Maryland’s Opioid Operational Command Center, Department of Health, and the Governor’s Office of Crime Control & Prevention, Governor Larry Hogan, and Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford are hoping to eliminate the statewide problem.
“Finding real solutions to the heroin and opioid crisis that is ravaging our communities is a top priority of our administration and a cause that myself and Lt. Governor Rutherford have been personally committed to since before we took office,” Hogan said in a statement. “This new funding will make real differences in people’s lives as we work together to turn the tide in this deadly fight.”
The announcement last Friday said that 80 percent of the funds will go to Maryland’s 24 local jurisdictions and service providers to support prevention, enforcement, and treatment efforts throughout the state.
“With this funding plan, Maryland reaffirms Governor Hogan’s commitment to helping equip our local communities as we work together to battle this epidemic throughout the state,” Maryland Department of Health Secretary Dennis Schrader, said in a statement.
Between 2014 to 2015, Maryland experienced a 20.1 percent drug overdose death rate increase, making it one of the several states that experienced a significant increase during that time period, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But, since then, the numbers seem to have climbed further. In 2015, heroin accounted for approximately 748 deaths and prescription opioids accounted for approximately 351; however in 2016, heroin-related deaths accounted for 1212 and prescription opioid-related deaths accounted for 418, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s 2015 and 2016 Annual Overdose Death Reports.
This is the state’s third public announcement in regards to methods to solve the ongoing statewide problem. On January 24, 2017, Governor’s Hogan and Rutherford joined with personnel from various organizations including the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention, and the Anne Arundel Medical Center among a few others to announce a 2017 Heroin and Opioid Prevention, Treatment, and Enforcement Initiative –an initiative created in effort to eliminate the issue.
As part of the January initiative, Maryland planned to create a state-wide Opioid Operational Command Center, “to assist in breaking down governmental silos and to aid in the coordination of federal, state, and local resources,” the announcement stated. Along with this plan, the initiative also included a $4 million funding and three new proposed legislations called the Distribution of Opioids Resulting in Death Act, the Prescriber Limits Act, and the Overdose Prevention Act.
“Today, we are announcing our 2017 Heroin Treatment, Prevention, and Enforcement Initiative, because as this crisis evolves, so must our response to it,” Hogan said at the time.
The third announcement took place on March 1, 2017, when Hogan signed an Executive Order declaring a State of Emergency in response to the heroin, opioid, and fentanyl crisis spreading throughout Maryland and country. In order to address the crisis, Hogan and Rutherf0rd said that $50 million in funding would be dedicated to the crisis over the next five years.
“The fact of the matter is that people all across Maryland, and across our country, are looking for answers when it comes to this heroin and opioid epidemic,” Rutherford said in March. “Too many families know the devastation caused by this crisis and the death toll is climbing.”
While opioid overdose remains a nationwide epidemic– in some states more than others– the common agenda includes finding ways to put an end to the problem.
