State and local officials have announced plans to open a “stabilization” center in Baltimore to help people who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

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City and state agencies are partnering to open a stabilization center in Baltimore to connect people struggling with addiction to necessary services.

Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, Mayor Catherine Pugh and Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen were some of the public officials on hand this morning to announce the plan.

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Baltimore City has a new way to fight the opioid crisis. Mayor Catherine Pugh announced plans for the State’s first Stabilization Center, which will open next year. 

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Baltimore will announce plans Wednesday to open a stabilization center, providing help for people struggling with addiction and other mental health disorders.

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City and state officials plan to announce Wednesday that they’ve secured funding for a stabilization center in Baltimore that would serve as a safe place where drug users can go when they are intoxicated to get medical treatment and links to other social services. 

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Baltimore City joined a lawsuit brought by Healthy Teen Network against President Trump, challenging a decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to cut funding from evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention education.

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Years before Dr. Leana Wen was appointed to head the Baltimore City Health Department, she was leading teams of doctors in emergency rooms as the attending physician, coordinating care for patients in some of the most critical moments of their lives.

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In July, the Department of Health and Human Services mailed notices to 81 schools, public health departments and community centers that received funding through the program with an update: The grants were being cancelled, and the program, which has had an annual cost of $101 million in recent years, would be shuttered in a matter of months.

“It made no sense,” said Dr. Leana Wen, commissioner for Baltimore City Health Department. “Congress appropriated the funding that was available.”

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Congress’s new spending deal commits more money to combat an opioid epidemic that’s led to hundreds of thousands of drug overdose deaths since the late 1990s. But while experts and advocates welcome the funding, there are a few reasons for caution.

To deal with this, Dr. Leana Wen, the health commissioner of Baltimore, has suggested “a Ryan White for the opioid epidemic” — a reference to the program, launched in the 1990s, that created a health care safety net for people with HIV and communities hit hardest by the disease. The idea is to create a source of funds that officials on the ground know they would be able to rely on for years to come.

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A handful of cities could soon face a legal showdown with the Trump administration over their efforts to open “supervised injection facilities” where drug addicts can shoot up with powerful illegal drugs while trained personnel stand by to prevent fatal overdoses.

“We cannot take an action that would jeopardize our federal funding,” Wen’s statement said. “We require guidance from the Department of Justice about the legality of these sites.”

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