(Baltimore Sun) Nearly 47,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2014 — more than from gunshot wounds or car crashes. In Maryland, the governor's office has defined the problem as an "epidemic … destroying lives." Indeed, heroin deaths alone have increased by 186 percent from 2010 to 2015 in the state.
Not only are drug related deaths on the rise, so are the associated harms, including: drug-related crime and violence, the spread of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C and the financial burden for taxpayers who shoulder the costs of health care and criminal justice.
The rapid increase of overdoses and addiction has put our nation in crisis mode with everyone from parents to presidential candidates looking for new solutions. To that end, at a press conference in Annapolis tomorrow, state Del. Dan Morhaim, who is also a practicing physician with 30 years of front-line experience in emergency rooms, will introduce a comprehensive legislative package proposing a different approach in Maryland — one that recognizes the epic failures of our current drug war and is based on sound policies being successfully implemented elsewhere in the world.