Overdose deaths surging across Maryland

Wednesday Jun 14th, 2017

State health officials said 2,089 people died of an overdose in 2016 in Maryland.

The deaths represent the largest year-over-year increase in overdose deaths ever recorded in Maryland history, state health officials said.


State health officials said almost 90 percent of the deaths were opioid-related.


Carin Miller, with Maryland Heroin Awareness Advocates, said these deaths are the latest sign of a health crisis in the state.
“We have a 68-year-old grandfather who is injecting heroin with his grandson,” Miller said. “We had an 86-year-old woman in Frederick County and the family went in and thought she had the flu and they said, ‘We're sorry your grandma is in withdrawal.’”

In Frederick County, 88 people died of overdoses last year, a 100 percent increase from 2015.

“The numbers are absolutely devastating,” Baltimore City Health Department spokeswoman Michelle Mendes said. “In Baltimore City we had 694 total overdoses in 2016.

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