Baltimore City has allocated about half of the nearly $260 million it won in settlements or judgements against various opioid manufacturers and distributors, excluding litigation fees, expenses, and funds tied up in appeals.
That’s according to a new dashboard the city launched for the public to be able to track its use of Opioid Restitution Fund money. The city also released a report outlining use of funds in Fiscal Year 2025, which ran from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025.
“I am so proud that we are investing Opioid Restitution Fund dollars directly back into neighborhoods hardest hit by the overdose crisis — and maintaining our commitment to transparent, public reporting of our investments,” Mayor Brandon M. Scott said in a statement. “I want to encourage all of our residents to review this report and follow the dashboard to track our progress. Building on our lifesaving work, and ending this crisis for good, takes all of us.”
The report and dashboard follow an executive order that Scott issued in August 2024 to guide the use of opioid restitution funds.
Baltimore has been ravaged by opioid deaths, particularly affecting the city’s older Black men, The Baltimore Banner found in their Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting in 2025.
Nearly $580 million was awarded to Baltimore as part of the city’s lawsuits against Teva, Walgreens, Cardinal Health, Johnson & Johnson, Allergan, CVS, and McKesson + Cencora. But about $152 million of that money is on hold while McKesson + Cencora appeal a court decision.
The city also had to pay more than $168 million in legal fees and expenses, leaving a little over $259 million in the city’s current share of the funds.
As of March 31, the city has allocated more than $122 million of its share. The majority of its allocations ($87 million) have gone to “named programs,” such as recovery assistance programs and organizations that were specifically named in settlements and judgements.
The city has also allocated more than $29 million to city agencies involved with addressing Baltimore’s opioid crisis; $4 million for administration purposes, including oversight, planning, assessing, and monitoring programs through the mayor’s offices of overdose response and recovery programs; and $2 million for community grants.
One named program, Charm City Care Connection, had finalized a signed grant agreement with Baltimore City by the end of June 2025.
The harm reduction organization conducts street-based outreach in the Dundalk/Highlandtown area near the drop-in center they operate at 1214 N. Wolfe St.
Charm City Care Connection was named to receive $5 million as part of the city’s settlement with Allergan. The money will be transferred to Charm City Care Connection through June 30, 2027, including $371,162 that the organization received through their grant agreement in Fiscal Year 2025.
The organization plans to use the money to strengthen and expand their current drop-in center services, including providing safer drug use supplies, wound care and hygiene supplies, food, laundry, showers, a clothing closet, support groups, other therapeutic and educational activities, and case management.
They also plan to develop outreach services in West Baltimore. The three ZIP codes with the highest number of overdose deaths in 2025 were all located in West Baltimore, according to a map depicted in the report.
“Throughout my lifetime, our city has been losing too many lives to preventable overdoses. We have been forced to say goodbye to many of our family members, friends, loved ones, and neighbors too soon,” Scott wrote in a letter introducing the report.
He added, “I am confident that when all of us continue to work together, we will overcome the decades-long overdose crisis and build a city where each and every one of us can thrive.”
