The end of a yearslong legal battle with those who contributed to Baltimore's overdose crisis is in sight — and so is an opportunity for city officials to finally demonstrate some transparency as residents continue to die.
The second phase of a landmark opioid trial wrapped on Tuesday, with Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill expected to make a ruling in the coming months. The city is seeking $5.2 billion from McKesson and Cencora, formerly called AmerisourceBergen, to abate an addiction and overdose epidemic that its lawyers argued was fueled by a flood of prescription opioids.
“There’s such a broad consensus in the literature about what is needed,” said Susan Sherman, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health who created the abatement plan. “It is a full response to the opioid epidemic.”
Sherman's 15-year plan calls for augmented harm reduction efforts, a notable increase in treatment access and, perhaps most notably, overdose prevention centers. The plan is estimated to reduce fatal overdoses by 50%.
The hearing came after the conclusion of the trial's first phase last month, when a jury found the companies liable for the "public nuisance" caused by the crisis. They were ordered to pay the city more than $266 million.
The two-phase trial provided what officials have been unable to offer for months: an honest discussion about Baltimore's alarming death rate and what the city's response could look like.
Since this spring, Mayor Brandon Scott's administration has repeatedly refused to comment on matters related to drugs or the overdose crisis, citing the litigation. It also successfully pressured city council members to cancel public hearings earlier this year, spurring protests at City Hall.
The mayor has only addressed overdoses on a few occasions, such as briefly during his State of the City address in late March, before International Overdose Awareness Day in August and after legal victories against pharmaceutical companies.
It's estimated that hundreds of Baltimoreans died of overdoses in the meantime, and a new slate of city leaders recently was elected without having to answer to questions about how they planned to prevent deaths.
The city's legal saga is now nearly over, however, with a windfall of funds heading to its coffers. Therefore, leaders will have a renewed opportunity for transparency, free of the constraints of lawsuits.
After the judge makes his ruling, there will no longer be any excuses to leave questions about the crisis unanswered. After all, public input and awareness are critical if the issue is to be taken seriously.
In August, Scott signed an executive order creating a governance structure to guide how the city will allocate the opioid restitution funds acquired from the lawsuits. He also emphasized the importance of dialogue with community members who have lived experience in formulating its plan.
In a Tuesday press release giving updates on progress related to the executive order, he reiterated the importance of the public's role.
"As we have said from the beginning, the Opioid Restitution Funds will be utilized to save and change lives impacted by opioid use and the devastating opioid overdose epidemic in our city,” Scott said. "There are processes that need to be followed, including passing budget legislation and doing the requisite public engagement, in order to ensure that these funds are handled responsibly and with the resident's best interest in mind."
The city is now interviewing candidates for the two positions created by the executive order, Scott said. Officials have also drafted an "Accountability and Transparency Plan" for how the funds will be used.
In addition, the city is scheduling "community listening sessions" in 2025 while working on a supplemental budget to create an initial appropriation of restitution funds.
Those updates are welcome, and residents should seize any opportunity to speak publicly with officials about the overdose crisis and the city's response.
Those discussions, however, should have already happened. And even though concerns about protecting litigation are understandable, many still wait for substantive discourse from the mayor's administration.
Amid the silence this year, more than $100 million was earmarked for opioid remediation efforts. Even if the city doesn't get the billions of dollars it's seeking in the second phase of the trial, Baltimore is already slated to receive nearly $670 million in total.
Never before has there been an opportunity to make such a massive investment in local harm reduction and treatment programs.
The next moves will be crucial. Baltimore has the highest fatal overdose rate of any U.S. city and, even though experts are cautiously optimistic because the death rate has slowed this year, a myriad of preventable deaths remain.
It may be unclear how much progress is being made in combating the overdose crisis at this time. What's certain, however, is that much more must be done.
The lawsuits are nearly over. So let's hope a new period of transparency follows in their place.
Editor's note: This article will also be published by the Baltimore Beat as part of a content-sharing partnership. Check it out here.
Comments