"How Can Baltimore Reduce The Number Of Heroin Overdoses?" (WYPR) July 13, 2015

Deaths by overdoses of heroin or prescription opioids in Baltimore are alarmingly more frequent: about 25% more people in the city died of heroin overdoses last year than in 2013, and the numbers are growing. State and local officials have been scrambling to figure out a way to stem the surge in overdoses. Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake convened a task force to study the problem and propose solutions. Those recommendations will be released later today. With Sheilah now to give us a preview of them is Baltimore City’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen.

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When I’ve asked experts about these approaches, it’s not that any of them are bad. It’s that they fall short. For instance, Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore (and soon-to-be president of Planned Parenthood), said that the Support for Patients and Communities Act “is simply tinkering around the edges.”

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