BALTIMORE — The city is one step closer to releasing the first wave of opioid settlement funds.
This comes after a years-long effort by the city of Baltimore to hold Big Pharma companies accountable for the damage causedto the city by their products.
On Monday, city council through a series of supplemental appropriations initiated the final steps needed to distribute the first $14 million of the $668.5 million provided through jury awards and settlements.
$10 million of which is slated for area non-profits, and it's just the beginning.
"It's going to be a game changer, I hope," Karen Duffy said.
Duffy is the Deputy Executive Director of the Maryland Coalition of Families.
"There's a lot of good that can come from it. I'm really excited to see how we're going to be able to use that money to impact families in Baltimore City positively," she said.
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They're hopeful to expand their services, which focus on providing support to families with a loved one suffering from an addiction.
"We currently are working with families as they find us, as we find them, as they are referred to us, where we'd really like to be is have a stronger presence in times of crisis," Duffy explained.
It's the same hope for Executive Director of On Our Own of Maryland Katie Rouse.
"It is a tremendous and transformative opportunity for us," she said. "Because it speaks to that holistic way of understanding a journey of health and wellness and recovery from addiction or a mental health or trauma, it opens up possibilities that our medical model system doesn't always have a good pathway for people to use."
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Conversations between the non-profits and the mayor's office are still ongoing.
"Nobody should be doing this in a vacuum. We want to make sure that we have this very coordinated partnership," Duffy said.
"The mayor's office has been so wonderful, I think in communicating with all of us about the various ways the funding can be used," Rouse said.
The appropriations will go through city hall like any other bill, requiring a committee hearing and two additional readings before the mayor can sign off on them and continue forward in distributing the money.
The supplementals include another $1.7 million to help establish the Restitution Advisory Board and $2 million to boost the city's Health Department opioid response strategy.
There are still two legal challenges remaining between the city and Big Pharma companies that when completed could potentially increase the total restitution money.
