A new 38-foot recreational vehicle outfitted with medical personnel and addiction treatment resources is Anne Arundel’s newest asset in the battle against opioid addiction.
Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, former county executive Steve Schuh, now executive director of the state Opioid Operational Command, and several other officials launched a partnership Tuesday in Crownsville between the state and county health departments called the Maryland Mobile Wellness Initiative.
The program comes at a time when Rutherford said the state is now struggling with a new crisis: cocaine cut fentanyl, the synthetic opioid state officials have long said was the driving force behind the historic increase in heroin-related fatalities.
According to the Maryland Department of Health, 626 people died between January and September of 2018 from cocaine and fentanyl overdoses, a stark increase that started back in 2015 and has increased six-fold since.
