A program launched in a number of Baltimore schools last year has helped students get better grades and higher test scores. A collaboration among a number of groups, including the Baltimore City Health Department and Johns Hopkins University, the Vision for Baltimore initiative was launched in large part to help those whose families may not be able to afford such services.

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The opioid epidemic raging across the country recognizes few boundaries. Its victims are young and old, the highly educated and high school dropouts, rich and poor, women and men.

Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen said that one of the many obstacles to overcome in treating opioid misuse is the pernicious stigma that attaches to drug addiction. 

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In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Animal Enforcement Officer Supervisor Hodge made his way to the courthouse to get a warrant signed regarding an investigation of a home where animal abuse was suspected of taking place. Officer Hodge and other Animal Control staff met with Baltimore Police Department (BPD) officers to go to the house to execute the warrant. After entering the house, the Animal Control Officers did not find any of the dogs. Instead, the officers found the floors covered in dog feces and trash and a rancid smell in the air. What appeared to be a vacant home actually housed a family with two small infants.

“Like a lot of the country, Baltimore City and the state of Maryland are experiencing unprecedented, epidemic opioid addiction,” Mark O’Brien, JD, director of opioid overdose prevention and treatment with the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD), said at an Aug. 24 meeting with University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) police.

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