In a State House news conference Governor Larry Hogan announced a four part strategy to tackle the scourge of heroin and heroin related deaths in the state. As reported in The Baltimore Sun:

“This used to be considered an urban problem but it’s not anymore,” he said. All over the state, he said, local officials had told him heroin had become their No. 1 problem.

Hogan’s four-point program included the signing of two executive orders, one to create a coordinating council of the various agencies involved in tackling the problem and the other setting up a task force led by Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford to study the issue.

The third point was Hogan’s announcement of a donation of 5,000 doses of EVZIO by manufacturer Kaleo Pharmaceuticals for the rapid treatment of heroin and other opiate overdoses. EVZIO is a delivery device similar to an epi-pen for the delivery of naloxone, a drug used to counter the effects of those substances in overdose emergencies.

Hogan also announced a $500,000 federal grant to the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention that will be used to increase treatment programs in the state’s jails and prisons.

The Governor did not declare a “state of emergency.” However Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, who is leading the state’s effort, stated that the administration will still treat the issue as an emergency even though there is no statutory authority to formally declare an emergency.

For more information read the full article in The Baltimore Sun.