Baltimore City Public Safety Committee held a meeting Tuesday to hear from city agencies about what they are doing to combat the opioid epidemic.
WATCH: Baltimore agencies given 60 days for opioid action plan
The committee heard from the city's fire department, police department, MONSE, and also the city's health department. After the agencies presented, Councilman Mark Conway, who is the committee chair, expressed his disappointment that the agencies don't seem to have a comprehensive plan of action.
"I have been asking the various agencies for a comprehensive plan for dismantling open air drug markets for just under a year, 364 days to be exact and we haven't gotten it," said Conway.
People like Karl Green, whose parents dealt with issues surrounding drug use, was also hoping for more answers. But he says it is a complicated situation, which is why he came to testify.
"It's important because people forget that their public servants, we have to show up in order to hold them accountable right, if we want change," said Green.
Green says he was glad to hear that each agency is working towards solutions in various ways.
"I'm a little understanding only because there are so many pieces to dismantling these open air drug markets, people need different needs and thats harm reduction is so important because your finding out specifically long term solutions to get people off of the streets," said Green.
Councilman Conway says he recognizes the individual efforts of the departments, like the increase in arrests for drug-related crimes and MONSE providing resources to communities after a tragedy like the mass overdose in Penn North, but he is expecting more of a push to solve the problem before things like that happen again.
"I've been visiting and talking to folks at various levels, local, state and federal level to get them to consider ways that we can intervene on this issue I just I really struggle to get real traction here and a real sense of urgency, and I want to make that crystal clear, we need to address this issue people are dying, families are being broken up and people are still falling into addiction every single day and the fact that we don't have a plan, how do we not have a plan? This is not a new issue," said Conway.
Now he is pushing the agencies to come up with a plan that can work to dismantle open air drug markets, and reduce the number of people using drugs in the city.
"Try with a pilot, start with a small drug shop and try to work to get those young men to make other decisions and to make sure that no other young men actually come in and fill that void. How do we make sure that folks dealing with addiction on that corner no longer need to deal with the urge for opioids," said Conway.
The councilman has given MONSE, city police, the fire department, and the health department 60 days to present a written plan of action they plan to use in the city to fight back against the opioid epidemic.
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