The Senate is advancing a legislative package to confront an opioid epidemic that’s killed hundreds of thousands over the past two decades. But as much as the Senate has hyped up the proposal, experts and advocates on the ground are worried that the bill simply doesn’t match the full scale of the crisis. 

“Many of these policies seem to be tinkering around the edges,” Dr. Leana Wen, the health commissioner of Baltimore, previously told me. “It’s not that they’re not helpful in some way,” she added. But what officials on the ground feel they need is “sustained, specific funding” and bolder, more sweeping guidance that will help build up long-term solutions.

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Shortly after Michael McMahon won Staten Island’s district attorney’s race in 2015, a young man collapsed on the street where he lived in the middle of the night. McMahon recounted this story and the approach he took as part of a panel organized by Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia Friday morning. The goal was to share lessons across cities, as Philadelphia wrestles with one of the nation’s highest overdose death rates amid a drug crisis that does not appear to be letting up.

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Health officials in Maryland have reported two more cases of severe bleeding problems in people who used synthetic marijuana. 

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Baltimore's health commissioner is joining the call urging people to stay away from fake marijuana as cases of severe bleeding by users tick upward. 

Dr. Leana Wen says synthetic cannabinoids, frequently touted as natural products, are in fact "extremely dangerous." In a statement, she says the substance has untested chemical compounds that can have "devastating effects for users."

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