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Alcohol and illicit drug abuse are among the most serious problems confronting Baltimore. At least 60,000 city residents need alcohol and drug treatment. Even on the basis of conservative estimates, the proportion of Baltimore residents needing treatment is at least double the national rate. Alcohol and drug abuse reaches deep into taxpayers’ pockets, increasing the costs of health care, criminal justice and other services. Based on national calculations by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Drug Strategies estimates that the economic costs of alcohol and drug abuse in Baltimore exceed $2.5 billion a year. For more than two decades, Baltimore has had an entrenched subculture of heroin addiction. Two-thirds of Baltimore residents with addictions are injection drug users. Crack cocaine’s arrival in the early 1990s compounded the city’s longstanding problems with heroin; crack drew a younger crowd of users and dealers, and violent crime associated with drug sales escalated. Many heroin addicts also began using crack. According to a July 2000 assessment by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Baltimore is the “most heroin-plagued area” in the nation and faces one of the most severe crack problems as well. The proportion of city residents needing treatment for heroin abuse is 15 times the national average. Fortunately, there are many treatment facilities in Baltimore.
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Resources: Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, Inc. Addiction Treatment Services at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Glass Substance Abuse Program Johns Hopkins Hospital Broadway Center University of Maryland Drug Treatment Center
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