Maryland, a state that already had one of the country's most punishing overdose mortality rates, notched a record-high number of drug deaths last year. The grim milestone was fueled by an alarming increase of fentanyl-related fatalities.

Despite renewed efforts to beat back the opioid epidemic, newly released figures from Maryland's health department show there were 2,282 intoxication deaths in 2017. Nearly 90 percent of those deaths were opioid-related, particularly the powerful, cheap synthetic forms that have been sweeping across America amid the nation's worst-ever drug crisis.

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Representative Elijah Cummings and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced a new bill at a roundtable discussion Friday in downtown Baltimore.

The Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency Act would treat the opioid crisis like a public health emergency.

If the CARE Act passes, it would provide $100 billion over 10 years towards the fight against the opioid crisis.

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With 175 Americans dying each day from drug overdoses, the opioid crisis is akin to “a plane crashing every day,” Mayor Catherine Pugh said on Friday as she and other Baltimore officials urged Congress to approve comprehensive legislation to combat the epidemic.

“We are in desperate need at this particular point in time,” Pugh said at a roundtable discussion that included .Baltimore Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, community leaders and addiction experts at the city offices of Health Care for the Homeless.

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House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings and Senator Elizabeth Warren hold a roundtable with congressional colleagues, Baltimore officials, and community representatives to discuss the city’s opioid crisis.

View a recording of the roundtable from CSPAN.

Baltimore City Commissioner of Health Dr. Leana Wen talked about challenges facing large cities like Baltimore in dealing with the opioid epidemic. She spoke via video link from Baltimore.

Watch the segment here.

With 175 Americans dying each day from drug overdoses, the opioid crisis is akin to “a plane crashing every day,” Mayor Catherine Pugh said on Friday as she and other Baltimore officials urged Congress to approve comprehensive legislation to combat the epidemic.

Cummings and Warren, both Democrats, sought to use the forum — nationally televised by C-SPAN — to promote legislation that would provide $100 billion over 10 years for services to combat substance use disorders. It is modeled after 1990’s Ryan White Act that provided billions of federal dollars to combat the AIDS crisis. 

“This is what we on the front lines have been asking for,” said Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, who moderated the panel.

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The number of drug- and alcohol-related deaths in Maryland soared to an all-time high of 2,282 last year as the state continued to struggle with an opioid addiction problem that has gripped the entire country.

“This is an escalating epidemic,” said Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana S. Wen. “But still we don’t even see the peak of this epidemic yet.”

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Maryland's deadly opioid crisis is showing no signs of abating with the latest state data highlighting a rising number of deaths due to fetanyl use.

Fentanyl-related deaths continue to rise, increasing from 1,119 in 2016 to 1,594 in 2017, according to information released Thursday on unintentional drug and alcohol-related intoxication deaths from the Maryland Department of Health. The agency's statistics include deaths in 2017 and the first three months of 2018.

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— At an unassuming storefront on a busy Brooklyn street, people sign up to use a bathroom outfitted to try to curb an overdose crisis.

Waiting his turn, a man named Robert is frank about why he's there, instead of one of the stairwells, parks, rooftops or porches where he has used heroin in the past.

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In their editorial, Dr. Wen and Dr. Shelly Choo focus on the collaboration between the Health Department and the City’s 12 emergency departments to fight the opioid crisis, and highlights specific programs created to facilitate opioid addiction interventions from the ED, including discharging patients with naloxone, connecting patients to peer recovery coaches, and providing access to Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) from the ED. 

Read the editorial.