WASHINGTON — Heroin use has risen dramatically across the United States, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Maryland, a task force is looking at ways to tackle the problem.
Governor Larry Hogan placed Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford in charge of the state’s Heroin and Opioid Emergency Task Force.
Last week, the group concluded a series of six meetings held all around the state.
“The next step is we have an interim report that is due in mid August, and then a final report and recommendations to the Governor in December,” Rutherford tells WTOP.
He says the state wants to take a multifaceted approach: “You have to look at prevention as one of the elements, treatment for those who have become addicted, as well as recovery efforts.”
They’re also looking at ways to target heroin distributors and traffickers.
Public service announcements are likely to come, Rutherford says, because many people just aren’t aware how widespread the heroin problem is.
“A lot of people don’t realize that this is such an issue,” Rutherford says. “They think it’s an issue someplace else, they think it’s only in the urban core, that it’s only in Baltimore or in certain other neighborhoods. But it is in every county, every jurisdiction in the state.”
These days, new heroin users are often former prescription drug users.
Also, Rutherford says, if you have prescriptions at home that you no longer use, get them out of your medicine cabinet where a young person or someone else could get access to them.
