City Will Use OSI Grant For Outreach To Stop Drug Misuse (WBAL Radio)
Tuesday Jul 11th, 2017
Baltimore City has received $200,000 dollars to help fight the opioid epidemic.
The grant money from the Open Society Institute will be used to bring in more people who work to educate addicts or users when there is a spike in overdoses in the city.
City health commissioner Dr. Leana Wen tells WBAL News Radio 1090 teams fan out following a spike to let addicts and users know that there may be a bad batch of heroin or other opioid causing deaths.
About one-third of overdoses in Maryland happen in Baltimore, Wen said.
She says the department works with the fire department, community organizations, police and non-profits and when any of those groups see a spike in overdoses, the outreach team can go out and talk to drug addicts and users.