On today's Midday, with guest host, WYPR News Director Matt Bush, a look at how Baltimore City has begun disbursing some of the $500 million it received in the Opioid Restitution Fund.
Half-a-billion dollars is a lot of money.
But is it enough to help a city heal after years of pain caused by the opioid epidemic?
Not long ago, overdose deaths claimed about a thousand lives a year in Baltimore city, according to reporting from our news partners the Baltimore Banner. From 2018 to 2022, we had some of the highest overdose rates in the country.
Recent data show a drop in overdose deaths.
But now, Baltimore is receiving more than 500-million dollars in legal settlement money won from the opioid manufacturers accused of funneling the drugs into the city.
And last week, the City announced the first wave of Opioid Restitution Fund grants, directed specifically to on-the-ground organizations that are working on drug safety, and with recovering opioid addicts and their families to help repair some of the damage done.
WYPR health reporter Scott Maucione has covered this story rigorously, and he joins Matt in Studio A.
Then, Matt and Scott are joined by Dr. Danielle Friedman Nestadt, an Assistant Scientist in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also director of the Check-It program, which is one of the grantees of the city's Opioid Restitution Fund.
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