City’s Response to the Opioid Crisis For the purpose: to provide a platform for city agencies, healthcare providers, and community advocates to discuss ongoing challenges, identify service gaps, and explore policy solutions to enhance Baltimore’s collective response to opioid addiction and overdose prevention.

This legislative oversight file (LO25-0021) documents a series of public hearings held by the Public Health and Environment Committee in 2025 to review Baltimore’s response to the opioid crisis. The hearings were triggered by the city's ongoing overdose mortality rates and the administration's development of the 2025-2027 Overdose Response Strategic Plan.

Key Provisions:

• Strategic Plan: The city is implementing a biennial strategic plan to reduce overdose deaths by 40% by 2040. The plan focuses on five pillars: social determinants of health, prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery.
• Funding: The city has secured approximately $668.5 million from opioid litigation settlements. As of October 2025, the city announced $2 million in community grants across three tiers ($500k, $250k, $50k) to support mobile treatment, harm reduction, and social support services.
• Mass Overdose Protocol: Following mass overdose events in the Penn North neighborhood on July 10, 2025 (12+ calls) and October 8, 2025 (11 overdoses), the city is finalizing a Mass Overdose Rapid Response Protocol. This mechanism triggers an emergency response (EMS, BCHD, BPD) when 5 overdoses occur in a discrete time and area.
• Accountability: Council members requested bi-annual data reporting on overdose statistics, a monthly update on the Data Use Agreement (DUA) with the Maryland Department of Health, and a timeline for the Mobile Street Outreach Plan.

Operational Mechanisms:

• Notification System: The city is developing a public alert system using FirstWatch and Everbridge to notify subscribers of overdose spikes.
• Grant Management: The Mayor’s Office of Overdose Response (BCMOOR) manages the Opioid Restitution Fund and coordinates the Restitution Advisory Board (RAB), which reviews grant applications.

Political Context:

• The hearings were initially delayed due to concerns that public discussion could jeopardize ongoing litigation. Council members, including Phylicia Porter and Mark Conway, pushed for these forums to address service gaps, the use of restitution funds, and the impact of open-air drug markets on neighborhoods like Morrell Park and Penn North.