More than $40 million in new funding to fight the heroin and opioid epidemic in Maryland was announced in a ceremony in Annapolis, Md., Tuesday.
The funding for fiscal year 2019 was announced jointly by Maryland's Opioid Operational Command Center, the Maryland Department of Health, and the Governor's Office of Crime Control & Prevention.
“Every day, the opioid crisis is evolving. Although we are making progress in reducing prescription opioid-related deaths, illicit fentanyl floods our streets. It's important that we remain focused and resolute in our coordinated efforts,” said Clay Stamp, executive director of the Opioid Operational Command Center. “Our local jurisdictions are inspiring – because it’s there, at the local level, in neighborhoods, schools, and communities – where we are making the biggest impact.”
Maryland has used an evolving approach to confronting the opioid crisis, using education and prevention along with treatment and recover, and enforcement.
The funding breaks down as such:
• $4 million for local for local Opioid Intervention Teams
• $2.5 million for prevention, education, treatment and recovery
• $1 million for public awareness campaigns to reduce stigma
• $700,000 for harm reduction teams
• $200,000 for a program that creates school-based teams for early substance abuse intervention
• $850,000 for a program that links law enforcement and treatment
• $380,000 to expand law enforcement assisted diversion to treatment
• $370,000 to increase monitoring and regulatory oversight of subscribers and dispensers of opioids
• $18.5 million to increase reimbursement for behavioral health providers as outlined by the Heroin Opioid Prevention Effort and Treatment Act of 2017
• $2.8 million to expand access to crisis beds in treatment centers
• $2.2 million to improve naloxone access
• $2 million for a 24-hour crisis stabilization center in Baltimore
• $1.7 million for peer support specialist services with a focus on hospitals, correctional facilities, and other high risk populations
• $1.5 million to increase access to medications used for substance abuse recovery
• $350,000 to expand the statewide crisis hotline
• $200,000 to support Montgomery County School System recovery and academic program
