City and state agencies are partnering to open a stabilization center in Baltimore to connect people struggling with addiction to necessary services.

Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, Mayor Catherine Pugh and Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen were some of the public officials on hand this morning to announce the plan.

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Baltimore City has a new way to fight the opioid crisis. Mayor Catherine Pugh announced plans for the State’s first Stabilization Center, which will open next year. 

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Baltimore will announce plans Wednesday to open a stabilization center, providing help for people struggling with addiction and other mental health disorders.

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City and state officials plan to announce Wednesday that they’ve secured funding for a stabilization center in Baltimore that would serve as a safe place where drug users can go when they are intoxicated to get medical treatment and links to other social services. 

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Two years ago, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., helped organize a roundtable discussion regarding the growing opioid epidemic in Maryland and throughout the United States, bringing health care professionals, law enforcement and nonprofit organizations together to share ideas on what has and has not worked in putting a dent in the crisis. In Baltimore City, Health Department Senior Advisor Dr. Shelly Choo said more than 35,000 residents had been naloxone trained, saving 1,500 lives. Choo said the city is using a three-pillar approach to combating the epidemic. 

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Congress’s new spending deal commits more money to combat an opioid epidemic that’s led to hundreds of thousands of drug overdose deaths since the late 1990s. But while experts and advocates welcome the funding, there are a few reasons for caution.

To deal with this, Dr. Leana Wen, the health commissioner of Baltimore, has suggested “a Ryan White for the opioid epidemic” — a reference to the program, launched in the 1990s, that created a health care safety net for people with HIV and communities hit hardest by the disease. The idea is to create a source of funds that officials on the ground know they would be able to rely on for years to come.

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A handful of cities could soon face a legal showdown with the Trump administration over their efforts to open “supervised injection facilities” where drug addicts can shoot up with powerful illegal drugs while trained personnel stand by to prevent fatal overdoses.

“We cannot take an action that would jeopardize our federal funding,” Wen’s statement said. “We require guidance from the Department of Justice about the legality of these sites.”

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If you hear members of Congress tell it, this is really the moment that federal lawmakers are taking the opioid epidemic seriously. “Many of these policies seem to be tinkering around the edges,” Dr. Leana Wen, the health commissioner of Baltimore, told me. 

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Fresh on the heels of President Donald Trump's plan to tackle the opioid crisis, House lawmakers this week plan to introduce more than two dozen bills aimed at ending the epidemic, ranging from better access to treatment programs to exploring opioid alternatives for pain. "I would argue that we on the front lines already know what is working," said Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore City Health Commissioner.

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In her op-ed, Dr. Wen expresses her concern's with President Trump's opioid plan.

"Yesterday, President Trump announced his plan to curb the opioid epidemic. While it is laudable that he is devoting time and attention to this issue, much of his announcement is deeply troubling."

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