The mayor and a prominent member of Baltimore’s city council are tussling over the transparency of the city’s response to the opioid crisis.
The city council’s Committee on Public Safety and Government Operations was slated to have a hearing on the issue Wednesday.
However, the public meeting was canceled at the last minute.
“I have sought private briefings from agencies on what the city is doing to combat this epidemic gripping our streets and robbing families of their loved ones,” said committee chair Mark Conway. “The response I have received is that given the pending litigation, we could not be briefed. I asked to have public health and medical experts present at today’s hearing and was similarly dissuaded from doing so.”
The Mayor’s Office fired back later in the day stating that Conway’s allegation was “categorically false.”
“Private briefings were offered to the councilman in lieu of a public hearing, which can only serve to endanger the litigation that we have been fighting on for more than six years and are now poised to win at trial later this year,” Mayor Brandon Scott wrote in a statement. “The councilman reneged on that agreement and opted for a wildly inaccurate statement.”
There are multiple questions lingering about Baltimore’s response to the opioid crisis. The city had higher rates than many other cities.
A recent Baltimore Banner/New York Times report stated Baltimore lost more than 6,000 people to opioids over six years, well above the national average.
Further, Baltimore still has not outlined how it will decide to mete out the funds it receives from opioid distributors and makers as it continues to come to monetary agreements or go to trial for restitution.
Some hoped those answers would come in more detail during the hearing.
Baltimore recently received $45 million from pharmaceutical company Allergen in a settlement.
Scott said is creating an opioid fund that will be managed by the Office of Recovery Programs.
On Wednesday, Scott stated that $20 million of the settlement will go to lawyer fees.
About $10 million will go to the Peer Navigator Program and Charm City Care Connection, which offer harm reduction kits, counseling, support groups and wound care.
The remaining $15 million will go to updating the citywide overdose strategic plan and expansion of the city's internal capacity, Scott said.
There are still several companies that are in litigation with the city, including CVS and Purdue Pharma.
Considering that Allergan only accounted for 0.5% of the opioids in Baltimore’s pharmacies, the remaining companies could settle for much larger amounts bringing a windfall of funds to the city to pay for services related to opioid addiction, according to Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Virginia.
“Their exposure is likely to be larger, just given the size of the entities and what the percentage might be,” Tobias said. “Those entities will have to seriously think about whether they do want to let it go to trial, or whether they can settle for something that they think is reasonable.”
The remaining defendants in the case were responsible for about 80% of the opioids that were delivered to drug stores in the city, according to Baltimore city officials.
The trial in Baltimore’s lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, Walgreens, CVS, Teva and former Insys CEO John Kapoor is set for Sept. 16.
