Wicomico County was one of several counties in the mid-Atlantic region of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to receive federal funds to address heroin and opioid addiction. As reported on WMDT47:

The funding will be used for a new initiative to bridge the gap between law enforcement and public health officials.

Maryland is already tackling the heroin issue according to state officials, as evident by Governor Larry Hogan’s heroin and opiate taskforce. Last year alone officials said the state had over 800 deaths due to heroin and opiate overdoses.

Dr. Michael Finegan is one of the members of that task force and explained why the rest of the counties on the Eastern Shore did not receive any federal money.

“It really had to do with the speed of response in a very short amount of time for requesting grant monies and some of the counties were not able to get their responses in quick enough,” Finegan said.

In respect to the counties that aren’t getting the federal funding, Finegan says the governor will soon be announcing major initiatives later this month to address the heroin and opiate problem across the state.

For more information read the full article on WMDT47.