For years, Baltimore’s leaders gave overdoses little public attention, even as the death rate swelled to unprecedented levels. But for a few weeks this summer, it seemed that the city would respond to its drug epidemic with new urgency.
The City Council was about to hold four hearings — planned after The New York Times and The Baltimore Banner reported that the overdose rate here was far higher than in any other major American city. And Mayor Brandon Scott had just announced a $45 million legal settlement with a drug manufacturer, raising the possibility of well-funded new public health efforts to combat the epidemic, which had claimed nearly 6,000 lives here in the past six years.
But hours before the first hearing, as demonstrators prepared to rally outside City Hall, the council president abruptly canceled the session, at the request of Mr. Scott’s administration.
The administration said that holding any of the public meetings would jeopardize a lawsuit the city had filed accusing numerous opioid makers and distributors of causing the crisis by flooding Baltimore with pills. City leaders believe the case could result in a transformative amount of money for its overdose response — far more than the $45 million it collected in a settlement with a single company that shipped relatively few drugs to Baltimore.
The decision to cancel the hearings was in keeping with the city’s reluctance in recent months to divulge nearly any details of its overdose prevention efforts, citing the lawsuit, which is scheduled for trial in September. Almost every council member was unwilling to comment on the hearings or on overdoses in the city, including several who had discussed overdoses earlier in the year.
It is not uncommon for governments to limit public statements during litigation, and some lawyers and public health experts said it was understandable to avoid hearings on the eve of a trial. But others said the decision raised questions about Baltimore’s response plan — and how it was addressing shortcomings in the city and state’s efforts to curb the epidemic. Residents have been mostly left in the dark.