SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
The number of opioid drug deaths and overdoses has started to fall in the U.S., but the epidemic is not over. Twenty-seven people from one neighborhood in Baltimore were rushed to the hospital last week for possible overdoses. Scott Maucione from member station WYPR reports.
SCOTT MAUCIONE, BYLINE: At the Penn North neighborhood in Baltimore, boxes of an overdose reversal drug are spread on street corners, and fentanyl test strips litter the ground. Just days ago, dozens of people were laid out around the area after a mass overdose left five people in critical condition.
BILL BROOKS: Every single person had, you know, started overdosing at the same time.
MAUCIONE: Bill Brooks is the CEO of Penn North Recovery Center, which is just blocks from where the incident happened.
BROOKS: We’ve never seen anything like it, so it was kind of an all-hands-on-deck type situation.
MAUCIONE: Brooks and his team scoured through alleys and abandoned buildings to find people who were in distress. The mass overdose is suspected to have come from a bad batch of opioid-type drugs. The dealers in the area dropped what are called testers, free samples that are often used to test the potency of a new batch. Alex Krotulski is the director at the Center Forensic Science Research and Education.
ALEX KROTULSKI: A lot of the times, the reason it’s a tester sample is because the folks who are going to distribute the drug product want to see how it affects the people that consume it.
MAUCIONE: Baltimore has one of the highest overdose rates of any city in the U.S. In the wake of this incident, the city deployed a rapid outreach team to the neighborhood to answer questions, distribute fentanyl test strips and offer support. Community organizations are providing free acupuncture and other stress-relieving options. However, some people in the neighborhood feel they’re being left behind by the city. Resident Andre Taylor lives in Penn North and says the drug epidemic is ripping apart his community.
ANDRE TAYLOR: Those drugs don’t help you. They kill you off more. And so, unfortunately, the system is designed – it’s like quicksand. Get your feet wet, a little dip and it sucks you in. You don’t get back out.
MAUCIONE: Taylor says now he’s just hoping the neighborhood can heal quickly dealing with this latest mass overdose.
For NPR News, I’m Scott Maucione in Baltimore. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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