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Maryland's strategy against opioid overdose

Narcan can treat narcotic overdose in an emergency situation. Photo: Matt Rourke/AP
Matt Rourke/AP
/
AP
Narcan can treat narcotic overdose in an emergency situation. Photo: Matt Rourke/AP

If you loved one of the 1,549 people who died in Maryland of an overdose in the past twelve months -- if you’re a brother, a parent, a daughter, a friend -- it may be small comfort that that number is 30 percent lower than the year before and has been trending downward since 2021. It’s still too high.

Emily Keller, Maryland’s ‘Special Secretary of Overdose Response, is charged with leading Maryland’s fight against overdose deaths. We ask her about the state’s anti-overdose strategy and about getting resources into the hands of local groups engaged in the fight.

Links: Maryland Dept. of Health Data Dashboard, Maryland Restitution Fund Grants.

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Melissa Gerr is a Senior Producer for On the Record. She started in public media at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn., where she is from, and then worked as a field producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland. She made the jump to audio-lover in Baltimore as a digital media editor at Mid-Atlantic Media and Laureate Education, Inc. and as a field producer for "Out of the Blocks." Her beat is typically the off-beat with an emphasis on science, culture and things that make you say, 'Wait, what?'