Baltimore stabilization center to help counteract opioid epidemic (WBAL)

Wednesday Mar 28th, 2018

Baltimore's mayor is making one of her biggest pushes yet to fight the opioid epidemic in the city.

City officials said the stabilization center is three years in the making, and it will be the first of its kind in Maryland, and one of the first in the country, to help people battling addiction and get them on the right path.

In the ongoing effort to counteract the opioid epidemic, Mayor Catherine Pugh announced Wednesday the planned opening of the Tuerk House Stabilization Center, located in the former Hebrew Orphan Asylum in Coppin Heights.

"It's an alternative to incarceration. It's an alternative to an emergency center. It's a way of treating people and providing them with the wraparound services with drug addiction, alcoholism. This is the kind of thing we will become a model for the state, a model for the country," Pugh said.

City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen said the center will offer a safe place for people dealing with addiction to receive short-term medical care and a path for the future.

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