There has been an 88-percent increase in the number of heroin-related deaths in Maryland since 2011. That’s according to a new report from Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. What’s driving the surge? How can it be stopped? Those are questions that Governor Martin O’Malley and state health officials are trying to answer.
With Sheilah by phone is the state’s top health official, Maryland Health Secretary Joshua Sharfstein. Also joining us is Derrick Hunt, Acting Director of Community Risk Reduction in the Baltimore City Health Department.
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health announced today that Dr. Sharfstein will join their faculty at the beginning of next year. He will be Associate Dean for Public Health Practice and Training.