Baltimore City has big plans for opioid restitution funds

By Sheilah Kast,

Melissa Gerr

Published September 6, 2024 at 11:04 AM EDT

Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott speaks during a press conference announcing details of an executive order that determines how opioid restitution funds will be spent. Photo: Baltimore City/J.J. McQueen

Three times as many people are dying from opioids as a decade ago. Baltimore City sued on behalf of those lives lost, and to combat overdose deaths in the future: The city has won more than $242 million dollars in restitution so far.

We ask Interim Deputy Mayor J.D. Merrill, and Sara Whaley, Program Director of the Bloomberg Overdose Prevention Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, how it will be spent.

Links: Baltimore City Opioid Restitution Fund, Overview of Mayor Brandon Scott's executive order, Restitution Advisory Board Application, Comments or Questions, 988 substance abuse help.

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Sheilah Kast

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.

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Melissa Gerr

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?'

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