The recent federal budget signed into law by President Donald Trump last week cuts more than a billion dollars from federal addiction and mental health services, forcing Maryland officials to consider tough options about the future of opioid settlement funds.
Members of the Maryland Opioid Restitution Fund Advisory Council, which makes recommendations on how the state should spend hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement money from drug companies, are warning against using some of the funds to supplant federal downsizing.
“I think the responsibility and the burden is going to fall heavily on the locals in the state,” Marcus Webster, a member of the council said. “We need to be really intentional with recommendations and funding decisions that we make, especially over the next two years.”
Read more (and listen) at WYPR.
