Anne Arundel Receives $274K To Fight Opioid, Substance Abuse

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD — Almost $10 million in grants to fight opioid and substance use in Maryland has been issued, including $479,800 to increase monitoring and regulatory oversight of controlled substance prescribers and dispensers across the state. Anne Arundel County will be receiving $274,618 in grant money to expand telehealth services for buprenorphine induction, continue to support safe stations and provide support for community and faith-based organizations.

“Addressing the opioid and substance use crisis in Maryland remains one of our highest priorities,” said Lieutenant Governor Boyd K. Rutherford in a statement. “As long as this crisis poses a threat to Marylanders, we will persist in our efforts to eradicate it. I want to make it very clear that we have remained focused on this issue in spite of the country’s other public health challenges, and we will continue to devote the resources required to bring it under control.”

The funding for fiscal year 2021 is part of a $50 million, five-year commitment that the Hogan-Rutherford administration announced in 2017.

The fiscal year 2021 grant distributions include:

• $5.6 million in competitive grants to fight the opioid and substance use crisis through the highest-scoring programs that align with the OOCC’s mission and that meet the most pressing needs around the state; and
• $4 million in block grants distributed among the Opioid Intervention Teams (OITs) in each of the state’s 24 local jurisdictions to fight the crisis in ways that best meet their own needs.
• $32,000 to provide drug prevention curricula for over 18,000 D.A.R.E. students in 16 jurisdictions across the state.
• $107,400 to develop a communications plan to be used by health care providers across the state to address education and enforcement of prescribing and dispensing of controlled dangerous substances.
• $200,000 to implement SBIRT (screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment) into primary care practices across the state.
• $203,700 to support increased access to comprehensive health care services for individuals with substance use disorder by establishing telemedicine at harm reduction programs across the state.
• $270,700 to provide assistance to outpatient mental health clinics across the state as they expand to become comprehensive crisis stabilization centers.

To view a full list of grant allocations by county, visit here.