New law and more police on its way if thus bull passes yu Will serve 100% of Yur time Baltimore City is grappling with a massive heroin problem, which is so severe new statistics show Baltimore has the highest rate of heroin addiction in the country. Mobile users tap here for video Marylands senior Sen. Barbara Mikulski is determined to fight what she calls a crisis. Mikulski called heroin addiction a dangerous epidemic that cuts across class, race, education and age, and new data from the feds backs that up. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, Baltimore has about 60,000 heroin addicts -- one in every 10 residents. From 2011 to 2013, heroin use increased by 88 percent in Maryland, well outpacing the national average, the statistics showed. Heroin overdose deaths rose 18 percent in the state from 2012 to 2013. Mikulski met with U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein in Baltimore on Wednesday to talk about her plan to combat the public health crisis. Her biggest weapon is money. As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the sub-committee that controls funding for the Department of Justice, Mikulski introduced a bill that includes $12 million for residential drug treatment programs, $10 million for anti-heroin state tasks forces and $7 million for prescription drug monitoring. She wants Maryland to lead the way. Establish a Baltimore metropolitan drug task force modeled on the meth model that we used so successfully. I want Baltimore to be a model for the nation. Our U.S. attorney is already taking very positive steps in this direction, leading the way, but he needs the resources to do it, and Im going to help him get it, Mikulski said. The measures multi-dimensional approach is drawing praise from addiction recovery professionals and bipartisan support in the Senate. It passed through committee and is heading to the Senate floor as part of funding legislation to keep the government running in fiscal year 2015, which begins Oct. 1. I have support because heroin addiction is on the rise throughout the country. We need a sense of urgency, we need a national plan, and we want Maryland to lead the way because we know how to do it, and we can show others the same way, Mikulski said.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 22:17:39 +0000