Members of the Baltimore City Council will hold four public hearings to discuss the city’s overdose crisis, officials announced at a council meeting on Monday.
The chairs of the council’s public safety at health committees scheduled the hearings, which will begin in July, in response to recent media reports highlighting the severity of the crisis in Baltimore. The Long Haul first reported that the city had the nation’s highest overdose death rate in February.
“My desire is to understand the problem,” said Councilman Mark Conway. “To talk about the data, what we know about the demographics and where we’re seeing issues across the city to understand what the next steps may be.”
Conway, chair of the Public Safety and Government Operations Committee, scheduled a public hearing in his committee at 1 p.m. on July 10 in the council chambers.
It will feature input from agencies such as the health and fire departments. Public testimony, however, will not be permitted because the city must be careful as it pursues litigation against opioid manufacturers, he said.
Councilwoman Danielle McCray, chair of the Health, Environment and Technology Committee, also announced three public hearings. Conway said he was not aware she planned to do so.
McCray’s committee will hold hearings on July 24, August 28 and September 25. All of the hearings will take place at 10 a.m. in the council chambers.
McCray was not immediately available for comment after the meeting.
Earlier that day, Baltimore announced it had reached a $45 million settlement with the pharmaceutical giant Allergan over its role in the opioid crisis.
Baltimore’s independent pursuit of funds comes after it opted out of previous state settlements, including with Allergan, claiming it would need to file its own lawsuit to receive its fair share of money.
In 2021, the city refused to join a state settlement with Johnson & Johnson, an opioid manufacturing giant, as well as AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson.
Baltimore missed out on millions of dollars from the $395 million settlement, but it will be going to trial on September 16 with hopes of securing a separate settlement.
Officials have begun to speak more frequently about the overdose crisis after The Baltimore Banner and The New York Times recently published a series of articles detailing overdose trends, confirming earlier reporting by The Long Haul.
There were 1,043 overdose deaths in Baltimore in the 12-month period ending January 2024, an 8.2% increase over the year prior, according to data from Maryland’s Office of Overdose Response.
The death rate was 178.1 deaths per 100,000 people, the highest in the U.S.
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