Mobtown Redux

Instead, the city may be left with Bates, whose decision to take credit for declines in violent crime is inherently flawed and reminiscent of comments from other city officials about recent historic decreases in fatal overdose rates.

Violent crime and fatal overdoses have plummeted nationwide, so it'd be foolish to attribute the downward trends to city-specific policies. That's particularly true for Bates, who has made it three years into his term without spearheading any notable policies.

Local data, however, sheds light on where his priorities lie.

For the better part of a decade, drug-related arrests and charges plummeted in Baltimore. At first glance, it appeared as though the War on Drugs had lost its steam.

Although racial disparities in arrests worsened under both Bates and former State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby — the percentage of those arrested who were Black reached as high as 96% in some years—it wasn't until he took office that arrests began to trend upward.

In Bates’s first year in office in 2023, all drug charges surged to 4,913, a 91% increase over the year prior. Misdemeanor drug charges, which were the subject of the de facto decriminalization policy, increased nearly 20-fold.

So, why are we allowing moderate, drug-war-loving prosecutors to remain at the helm of the city's criminal "justice" system as law enforcement targets low-level drug crimes through initiatives that disproportionately impact Black residents?

One may question how the city's prosecutor dictates policing, but the answer is found within the de facto decriminalization policy. Back then, cops knew that low-level drug crimes wouldn't be prosecuted, therefore dissuading them from making arrests.

On the other hand, Bates' decision to rescind the policy immediately upon taking office sent a clear signal to the city's corrupt cops: Catch someone on drug charges, and we'll crack down in the courtroom.

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The Baltimore Police Department's annual arrest report backs this up, showing that it broke 2,000 drug-related arrests for the first time since 2019, with his tenure reversing a decades-long trend of declining drug policing.

Bates has insisted that incarceration isn't his goal, repeatedly referring to his citation docket program. The program aims to hold people accountable while offering them social services, with jail time and fines used only when individuals fail to complete community service opportunities.

In practice, citations have rarely been used. And Bates’ office has refused to answer any questions about the program, including how many people his office has connected to services, how many citations actually get on the docket and whether there's any indication that the program has been successful.

The silence is deafening: Bates doesn't care about diversion or justice. He simply cares about numbers, even if those numbers come from helping lock up drug users and other vulnerable populations.

His unchallenged candidacy, therefore, is troubling.

Elections for positions such as state's attorney must serve as a collaborative effort between the harm reduction movement and criminal justice reform — two life-saving areas of activism that fight both the War on Drugs and the prison-industrial complex. As the cops crack down harder and jail cells get fuller, it is incumbent upon those in these movements to act up.

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This means direct action. This means rallying to protect our most vulnerable through mutual aid and other avenues. And it also means ensuring that no one like Ivan Bates can attain office again.

With an unscrupulous police force running roughshod in the city and fanning the flames of the drug war, a primary challenger from the left was perhaps the final chance to bring some semblance of sanity back to the city's criminal "justice" system.

Sure, the term "progressive prosecutor" is problematic because no individual tasked with upholding the punishment bureaucracy is a true progressive. But as former State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby demonstrated, a top prosecutor can push back against the worst the system has to offer—things Bates happily upholds.

A single-candidate race, at the end of the day, isn't only a slap in the face to democracy; it's a deadly disservice to drug users and other vulnerable populations. Without dramatic reforms, their lives are confined to jail cells, a lack of health care access and no autonomous rights.

The abolition of the carceral system, the drug war and the current neoliberal regime are likely the ultimate solution. Until then, however, voters at least deserve some alternatives.

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "Deadly adulterants have proliferated as drug-war policing escalates in Baltimore"

As the Baltimore Police Department cracks down harder on those who use drugs, the supply that they claim to be targeting has become increasingly unpredictable and deadly.

About 10.5% of drug samples in Baltimore contained medetomidine, a veterinary sedative, in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to a report earlier this month from the state's Rapid Analysis of Drugs, or RAD, program. As of the first quarter of the year, no samples contained the drug, and just 1.3% contained medetomidine in the second quarter. State health officials have acknowledged that the drug supply shifting to a dangerous sedative can be attributed to interdiction.

"Although veterinary sedatives are not new to the drug supply, their increasing presence may complicate overdose prevention and response strategies,” according to one RAD newsletter. "The emergence of medetomidine in Maryland coincides with a reduction in xylazine that followed the scheduling of xylazine in Pennsylvania and Virginia."

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 585 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2025, marking a historic 24.7% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data from the Maryland Department of Health.

That death toll will likely change as causes of death are finalized, but the decline mirrorjs the downward trend seen nationally. This was the second consecutive year that Baltimore saw a notable decrease in deaths; there were 777 deaths — a 25.5% decrease from the year prior — in 2024.

The numbers indicate that the city's fatal overdose rate continues to trend downward after years of climbing, with the death toll twice surpassing 1,000 people.

However, the preliminary data also shows that low-income Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore continue to see the highest death rates. Those same neighborhoods are also the most heavily policed, with residents significantly more likely to be arrested on drug charges.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Filter: "Beyond the Panic: A Harm Reduction Lens for Teen Drug Use"

Adolescent drug use often triggers moral panics, fear-mongering and the passage of draconian laws to “keep the kids safe” by putting their caregivers in prison. A “troubled-teen” industry preys on parents desperate to help their kids at any cost—subjecting young people whose drug use is deemed problematic to abstinence-only “tough love” and isolating, abusive “boot camps.”

Harm Reduction Approaches With Adolescents Who Use Substances, a new book by Amanda Reiman and Barry Lessin, is a much-needed corrective to conventional, violent and failed ways of working with young people who use drugs. They dismantle the cruel and ineffective concepts of tough love and zero tolerance. They critique the disease theory of addiction, detailing why it can’t explain adolescent drug use and causes enormous harm.

The authors make a convincing case to stop punishing and shaming adolescents, and instead seek to understand drug use in the context of this developmental life stage. Using the scaffolding of the eight principles of harm reduction, their approach centers on respect, dignity, meeting teens where they’re at, and the nonjudgmental and noncoercive provision of services.

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Stay tuned for next week's Redux Newsletter, which goes live every Tuesday morning. Any pieces I write for the Baltimore Beat, Filter and other publications will also be published here.

Deadly adulterants have proliferated as drug-war policing escalates in Baltimore

Logan Hullinger — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:01:14 GMT

As the Baltimore Police Department cracks down harder on those who use drugs, the supply that they claim to be targeting has become increasingly unpredictable and deadly.

About 10.5% of drug samples in Baltimore contained medetomidine, a veterinary sedative, in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to a report earlier this month from the state's Rapid Analysis of Drugs, or RAD, program. As of the first quarter of the year, no samples contained the drug, and just 1.3% contained medetomidine in the second quarter. State health officials have acknowledged that the drug supply shifting to a dangerous sedative can be attributed to interdiction.

"Although veterinary sedatives are not new to the drug supply, their increasing presence may complicate overdose prevention and response strategies,” according to one RAD newsletter. "The emergence of medetomidine in Maryland coincides with a reduction in xylazine that followed the scheduling of xylazine in Pennsylvania and Virginia."

Although the RAD program's third-quarter report did not include medetomidine content broken down by jurisdiction, the available data shows a clear upward trend. While medetomidine does not cause the wounds associated with xylazine, a sedative that has become rarer, it's more potent and shares its naloxone-resistant qualities. It also causes severe sedation and respiratory depression.

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The references to Pennsylvania's crackdown on xylazine come from Gov. Josh Shapiro's decision to sign a law in 2024 classifying xylazine as a Schedule III drug after the state temporarily did so in 2023. Subsequently, medetomidine replaced it as the most common adulterant in Philadelphia, one of the cities hit hardest by the overdose crisis.

Crack down hard, face the consequences. The street drug economy can adjust, and it will do so in a deadly manner. Similar efforts have surfaced in Maryland but failed, with the state health department acknowledging the dangers of beefing up regulations.

This trend opens up a large discussion about what public health experts know compared to what local governments and their police forces know.

The state's drug-checking program, the first of its kind in the nation, is not perfect, said Erin Russel, a harm reduction consultant who served as chief of the former Center for Harm Reduction Services, in an interview with Mobtown Redux.

The program provides limited context. It does not, for example, show the progression of a drug making its way to Maryland. It only shows the end result, as with medetomidine. While about 10% of Baltimore's drug supply contained the drug, more than 51% of samples in Cecil County, which borders Philadelphia, contained medetomidine in the most recent RAD report.

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"All these whack-a-mole adulterate issues are the result of an unregulated market that gets more and more dangerous with an enforcement approach," said Erin Russel, a harm reduction consultant who served as chief of the former Center for Harm Reduction Services.”Drug checking makes the need for consumer protection so clear."

That enforcement approach includes local policing strategies, such as what's seen in Baltimore. But among other factors, it's impacted by state, federal and international interdiction efforts, she said.

Studies show that heavy-handed drug enforcement can increase overdose death rates by disrupting the drug supply and pushing drug users toward riskier sources, a phenomenon known as the “Iron Law of Prohibition.”

So, in a city where local officials claim the War on Drugs is over, what is happening?

In Baltimore, the police's own data directly contradicts those claims, which have come from Mayor Brandon Scott, the police department's top brass and other local officials. The police commissioner argues that those who use drugs must be targeted to get to the suppliers.

The police department ended 2025 with a 25% increase in misdemeanor drug arrests over the year prior, according to the data. The most recent data, which reflects low-level arrests as of Feb. 14, shows that low-level drug arrests have increased 23% over this time last year.

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The Redux Newsletter is now co-published by Scalawag Magazine, an abolitionist publication covering oppressed communities in the South. Support them today.

The gameplan, therefore, seems lose-lose. Either the city destroys the lives of drug users by feeding them to the carceral beast, or it interrupts the supply and kills them through that means.

The fact that law enforcement has essentially been given carte blanche to continue its assault on drug users in the name of public safety is not only nonsensical but incredibly dangerous.

The state's drug testing program is telling jurisdictions how their actions are impacting the drug supply, which in turn determines the livelihoods of drug users. But that hasn't seemed to lead to drug policy reforms or policing reforms as more people continue to die.

The inaction is a clear indication that those in power simply do not care about what is killing their constituents who use drugs — they'd rather maintain the status quo and pretend that their policing strategies have people's safety in their best interest.

But as the data shows, that's not the case. And until things change, the drug war will rage on, and the death campaign will only hurt our most vulnerable.

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "Baltimore harm reductionists rally in Annapolis to target paraphernalia criminalization"

Harm reductionists from Baltimore and beyond are backing a new iteration of a bill in this year's General Assembly session that has paraphernalia criminalization in its crosshairs — part of a renewed effort to combat the racist War on Drugs in Maryland.

Dozens of people, ranging from harm reduction organizers to abstinence-based recovery advocates, gathered in Annapolis last week for Overdose Prevention Advocacy Day. After rallying at the Lawyers Mall on a frigid Tuesday morning, they lobbied lawmakers to support or oppose a slate of bills being considered in this year's session. For those fighting for the rights of drug users, it was paraphernalia legislation cross-filed in both chambers that took priority, with the day culminating in a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

"Legally obtained items should stay legal. Point blank, period," said Candy Kerr, communications manager of the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition. "It's the association with drugs that makes it illegal, allowing police officers to stop and harass people who have paraphernalia on them."

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 568 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2025, marking a historic 27% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data from the Maryland Department of Health.

That death toll will likely change as causes of death are finalized, but the decline mirrors the downward trend seen nationally. This was the second consecutive year that Baltimore saw a notable decrease in deaths; there were 777 deaths — a 25.5% decrease from the year prior — in 2024.

The numbers indicate that the city's fatal overdose rate continues to trend downward after years of climbing, with the death toll twice surpassing 1,000 people.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Filter: "SF Advances RESET Sobering Center, Over Concerns of Unlawful Detention"

San Francisco is moving forward with plans to open a controversial sobering center, despite warnings that courts would likely consider the city liable for operating an unlicensed detention center. On February 17, Mayor Daniel Lurie (D) signed legislation that authorizes a $14.5 million contract with Arizona-based Connections Health Solutions to run the Rapid Enforcement, Support, Evaluation and Triage (RESET) center, which has been described by Sheriff Paul Miyamoto as “like a big drunk tank that’s not a jail.”

RESET, which will receive health department funding but operate under the authority of the sheriff’s office, is billed as an alternative to jail and hospitalization. It’s slated to operate as a pilot for 26 months with the option of a one-year extension, and to open its doors in April at 444 Sixth Street in the SoMa neighborhood, across from the county jail.

The center is expected to have 25 reclining chairs where people arrested for public intoxication can be dropped off and can remain for up to 24 hours. Then they’re supposed to be given the option to transfer to a stabilization center, where they could stay for up to 90 days while receiving mental health and substance use services.

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Baltimore harm reductionists rally in Annapolis to target paraphernalia criminalization

Logan Hullinger — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 16:33:31 GMT

Dozens of people, ranging from harm reduction organizers to abstinence-based recovery advocates, gathered in Annapolis last week for Overdose Prevention Advocacy Day. After rallying at the Lawyers Mall on a frigid Tuesday morning, they lobbied lawmakers to support or oppose a slate of bills being considered in this year's session. For those fighting for the rights of drug users, it was paraphernalia legislation cross-filed in both chambers that took priority, with the day culminating in a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

Unlike previous versions of the legislation, it would not decriminalize paraphernalia. Advocates are instead pushing for a streamlined bill this year that would repeal laws criminalizing paraphernalia entirely, bypassing the inevitable – and likely lengthy – debates over what items fall under that umbrella.

Even though syringe service programs have existed in Maryland for more than three decades, the laws on the books allow police to arrest drug users if they cannot prove that items like syringes and stems came from the programs. Even if they can prove it, the simple possession of those items allows cops to initiate contact with individuals without any indication that they're illegal.

Law enforcement data has made it clear who they are targeting.

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A Baltimore Beat investigation last year found that nearly all of those who are arrested and charged with drug-related crimes, including paraphernalia, are Black.

That number peaked at 96% in 2021, the same year that the city recorded its most fatal overdoses on record. A little over 1,000 deaths that year were attributed to overdoses, more than two-thirds of whom were Black, according to data from the Maryland Department of Health.

In 2024, 92.5% of those arrested for drug charges were Black.

"Our current laws do not keep us safer," said Del. Karen Simpson, a Frederick County Democrat sponsoring the House bill. "They're not stopping the production, distribution or usage of drugs. Our current laws have been a distraction from serious crimes, and they have been used as a weapon against our struggling communities and the people who are trying to serve them."

The legislation would make it easier to access sterile supplies, which prevent the spread of HIV and other diseases, without fear of being arrested. And while it may not seem like an overdose prevention measure at face value, dismantling a key component of the War on Drugs would undoubtedly save lives.

Paraphernalia laws are often used to initiate drug users into the criminal justice system or weaponized as tack-on offenses to bolster cops' cases against vulnerable individuals. As studies have shown, the result is that the destabilizing nature of incarceration, along with drug-war policing, dramatically increases fatal overdose rates.

Efforts to tackle paraphernalia criminalization have had mixed results. Back when it was a decriminalization bill, it passed both chambers in the General Assembly but was vetoed by former Gov. Larry Hogan in 2021.

While the upper chamber had the votes to override the veto, Senate President Bill Ferguson — who has also played a role in the deaths of other proposed drug policy reforms over the years — never pursued it.

Last year, the bills died in committee.

Ferguson's apathy toward life-saving reforms has also held up legislation to legalize overdose prevention centers, which allow people to use drugs in facilities under medical supervision. Legislation to permit the facilities to open in Maryland also languished in committee last session.

Those facilities are considered the gold standard of harm reduction, although bills to legalize them were not introduced this year. Advocates say that lawmakers are too distracted with other matters to give OPC legislation a fair shot this session, and the fact that it's an election year means those in power are less likely to take up reforms deemed too controversial.

Despite studies repeatedly demonstrating the efficacy of OPCs, there has been little appetite among lawmakers to legalize and ultimately save countless lives.

"It's disappointing they have decided not to bring that forward this year," Kerr said. "Our gameplan is to come back next year better and stronger and try to get it passed. And we're always working on OPCs on the city level."

City-sanctioned OPCs appear to be an uphill battle. Mayor Brandon Scott has refused to commit to using his power to unilaterally permit sites to open, and Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Taylor has indicated that the city won't pursue OPCs to avoid risking federal funding under President Donald Trump.

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Meanwhile, as drug users continue to die at unprecedented rates — although annual death tolls have dropped substantially in the past two years — there's a bipartisan effort to fill jails and prisons with those who sell them drugs.

As they look to pass the paraphernalia bills, harm reductionists are trying to kill a pair of bills that were introduced at the eleventh hour that would significantly ramp up penalties for drug distribution, potentially providing more ammunition for police and prosecutors carrying out the drug war.

Those bills would create a 20-year maximum sentence for those who distribute fentanyl or heroin that leads to death, also known as "drug-induced homicide." On top of a law passed in 2017 that increased the maximum sentence for opioid dealers to 30 years, those who sell drugs could see as many as 50 years behind bars.

Like the paraphernalia legislation, those bills died in committee last year.

"The penalties are insane, and it will discourage people from reporting overdoses," said Dan Rabbitt, policy director at Behavioral Health System Baltimore, who added that he anticipates those bills facing the same fate this year.

Harm reductionists argue that repealing paraphernalia laws would allow drug users to utilize syringe programs without fear that they could be arrested for having their supplies. They oppose the drug-induced homicide legislation because it ramps up a criminalized approach to drug policy and would likely cause even more preventable deaths.

Caught in the middle of the policy debates, however, are drug users themselves.

The focus on the 90-day legislative session in Annapolis should not distract from what is happening back home in Baltimore, nor should it lift any burden off the shoulders of local officials who have the power to implement change at the city level.

Baltimore, for instance, already had de facto decriminalization of not just paraphernalia but all low-level drug crimes under former State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby. It was Ivan Bates, her successor, who recriminalized the simple possession of a syringe or stem and undo years of progress in combating the drug war.

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The Redux Newsletter is co-published by Scalawag Magazinee, an abolitionist publication covering oppressed communities in the South. Support them today.

Local officials seem incapable of fully comprehending the harm done during Bates' tenure. At the same time, however, they insist that relying on state-level reforms is the best way to effect meaningful, progressive drug policy in Charm City.

The mayor has backed efforts to decriminalize paraphernalia and legalize OPCs in the General Assembly, joining other officials in a performative effort to appear as though they care about the well-being of drug users.

But he, like many members of the Baltimore City Council, has only sparingly used his power to enact drug policy reform. The inaction has been most evident in Scott's refusal to fight for city-sanctioned OPCs, despite researchers suggesting that Baltimore could establish sites by issuing an emergency declaration. New York City also demonstrated in 2021 that coordinated efforts among city agencies can make it possible.

With those in power balking at opportunities to liberate drug users from the confines of the carceral system and inevitable death, the people must demand more.

Legislative pushes at the state level are imperative. Yet boots-on-the-ground organizing pressuring local officials — the ones who claim to represent and fight for everyday Baltimoreans — is equally important in the movement to end a lethal, racist drug war that has festered in the city for decades.

What too many fail to realize is that drug users are the same "everyday Baltimoreans" they purport to defend. And if they truly care about their constituents, they'd afford them the right to autonomy and life itself.

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "Baltimore's flawed mass OD protocol is a consequence of its failure to end the drug war"

Baltimore's new mass overdose protocol begins with a promise: The War on Drugs is over in Baltimore, and the racist beast of punitive drug policy is no longer running the show.

Mayor Brandon Scott made the case before the Maryland Senate Finance Committee last week. With city health officials by his side, he emphasized the need for compassion and prompt action as he reflected on a string of three mass overdose events in Baltimore's Penn North neighborhood last year. Though none of the dozens of people who overdosed died because of prompt action from harm reductionists, the incidents rocked the low-income Black community and prompted a flurry of racist propaganda that harkened back to the New York Times’ infamous 1914 article, “Negro Cocaine ‘Fiends’ Are a Southern Menace,” which ultimately led to one of the first racist drug laws in the US.

Things have changed since then, officials argue. And care, not handcuffs, is at the center of the city's overdose prevention plan, officials say.

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 568 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2025, marking a historic 27% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data from the Maryland Department of Health.

The numbers indicate that the city's fatal overdose rate continues to trend downward after years of climbing, with the death toll twice surpassing 1,000 people.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Matter News: "Ohio’s Recovery: The past, present, and future of the overdose crisis"

Ohio’s relationship with and response to substance use has always obscured fundamental human rights problems.

Alcohol prohibitionists were fueled as much by racism and xenophobia as they were by religious zeal. The effects of the drug war have impacted Black and Brown people and poor people more than anyone else. Methamphetamine use is a way to stay awake while working multiple shifts or when rough sleeping. And voters approve access to cannabis and then legislators try to limit it.

The surge in opioids that began in the late-1990’s was as much about lack of adequate health care as it was about shady “pill-mills.” When access to pills slowed, there was greater access to heroin and then fentanyl, and then a rise in blood borne diseases. The subsequent sluggish rollout of syringe service programs in Ohio – and an outright ban in Licking County – was rooted in stigma and not science.

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Baltimore's flawed mass OD protocol is a consequence of its failure to end the drug war

Logan Hullinger — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:43:39 GMT

Baltimore's new mass overdose protocol begins with a promise: The War on Drugs is over in Baltimore, and the racist beast of punitive drug policy is no longer running the show.

Mayor Brandon Scott made the case before the Maryland Senate Finance Committee last week. With city health officials by his side, he emphasized the need for compassion and prompt action as he reflected on a string of three mass overdose events in Baltimore's Penn North neighborhood last year. Though none of the dozens of people who overdosed died because of prompt action from harm reductionists, the incidents rocked the low-income Black community and prompted a flurry of racist propaganda that harkened back to the New York Times’ infamous 1914 article, “Negro Cocaine ‘Fiends’ Are a Southern Menace,” which ultimately led to one of the first racist drug laws in the US.

Things have changed since then, officials argue. And care, not handcuffs, is at the center of the city's overdose prevention plan, officials say.

"For far too long, as was the case for public safety, city government operated as though we could arrest and criminalize our way out of this issue," Scott said at the hearing. "When I took office, we committed to doing things differently."

In practice, however, that has not been the case. As the prospects of drug user liberation in Baltimore remain grim, the drug war continues to rage on. And that death campaign is the reason the protocol must exist in the first place.

At first glance, the city's mass overdose protocol mostly clarifies language as to what a mass overdose is and codifies the roles of first responders. The document defines a mass overdose as "at least 5 overdoses in a 1-3-hour period in a defined/small geographic area or single location."

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The plan, which officials first presented before the Baltimore City Council last month, is partially activated in the event of five to 10 overdoses. Full activation occurs during incidents in which 11 or more people have overdosed.

Partial activation entails the fire department taking the lead, and the city would establish on-scene sites to coordinate a response. Local harm reduction programs would then provide support and conduct community canvassing.

Upon full activation, however, the scene is treated as a mass casualty event. It is at that time that police take over along with the health department. The city would utilize its emergency operations center to coordinate a more thorough, widespread response.

Police and health officials did not respond to requests for more details about the police's role by Mobtown Redux’s deadline. Yet any involvement by law enforcement is where any chance of a public health-driven response goes to die.

The Baltimore Police Department's own data directly contradicts the anti-carceral sentiment of public officials, who have done little more than pay lip service to the ruinous consequences of drug-war policing while avoiding actual reforms.

The police department ended 2025 with a 25% increase in misdemeanor drug arrests over the year prior, according to the data. And, although the most recent data only reflects the month of January, those low-level arrests have risen by an additional 18% from the same time period last year.

At a Baltimore City Council Public Safety Committee hearing last week, Police Commissioner Richard Worley claimed that drug users weren't the targets as they seek to dismantle "open-air drug markets" such as Penn North.

"It's really hard to close down open-air drug markets because you don't really want to get the buyer," he said. "That doesn't really do anything. You've got to get the seller."

Yet Worley contradicted a statement he made just months before as he stood in front of the same committee, claiming that "there's no way around" arresting drug users because they must be cuffed and flipped to get their hands on those who sell drugs.

All the while, studies show that this exact brand of drug enforcement can increase overdose death rates by disrupting the drug supply and pushing drug users toward riskier sources, a phenomenon known as the “Iron Law of Prohibition.”

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Baltimore is no stranger to the tainted drug supply. In the first mass overdose event in July — after which cops raided the neighborhood and arrested five people — a rare designer benzodiazepine was found in the drug supply. In the most recent incident in October, the veterinary sedative medetomidine was found.

It's abundantly clear that the current status quo is not working. So, where does drug policy reform now stand?

"The decriminalization of paraphernalia, to just reduce barriers to individuals who are experiencing substance use disorder treatment, is also very important," said Letitia Dzirasa, the city's Deputy Mayor of Equity, Health, and Human Services, at last week's hearing.

"So is the sustained investment in our Rapid Analysis of Drugs program. And then lastly, of course, people who use drugs have safe places to go for those ongoing supports, places where they won't be judged, and that are stigma-free."

Policies such as decriminalization, an iteration of which is now a bill introduced in the General Assembly, are undoubtedly a step in the right direction. At a Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee hearing last week, advocates unveiled a bill that would completely repeal state laws criminalizing paraphernalia.

But paraphernalia legislation is just one of many reforms required to end the carceral state's grasp on drug policy, one of the most vital of which is the legalization of overdose prevention centers.

Those facilities, as Dzirasa described, would give drug users a safe place to consume substances under medical supervision. They'd also connect these individuals to other social services.

As a Scalawag supporter, you’ll support our nonprofit journalism and storytelling online and in-person—and you’ll get some special perks, too.

The Redux Newsletter is now co-published by Scalawag Magazine, an abolitionist publication covering oppressed communities in the South. Support them today.

Unlike previous years, however, advocates aren't pursuing bills in this General Assembly to legalize OPCs in this session, and the mayor has refused to commit to establishing city-sanctioned sites despite multiple avenues to pursue them. Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Taylor has more candidly indicated that the city won't pursue OPCs to avoid risking federal funding under President Donald Trump.

The city may be riding the high of its second consecutive historic drop in fatal overdoses, but that's part of a national trend. And the crisis continues to disproportionately impact low-income Black communities. Older Black men are particularly at risk, with their death rates more than doubling those of white men in recent years.

The city's recent focus on the mass overdose protocol will not address any of this; the plan simply creates a formal response to a problem that's inextricably linked to Baltimore's policy failures. It won't stabilize the increasingly lethal drug supply, and it sure as hell won't shift the city toward a more compassionate approach to drug use as long as the police prioritize crackdowns with their whopping $613 million war chest.

The words of those in power mean little, given how the city has positioned itself against drug user liberation. Instead, they've bankrolled a system that forces drug users into the shadows, jail cells, or graves.

The War on Drugs is alive and well in Baltimore; the same can't be said for the thousands of city residents who have died at its hands in the past decade.

If the city truly wants to save lives, it's incumbent on those who wield power to listen to the demands of drug users and harm reductionists. Yet that takes a level of political will that's absent in Baltimore, so perhaps the people must take things into their own hands.

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "A frigid Baltimore storm highlights the cold shoulder those in power have given to vulnerable residents"

At first glance, Baltimore entered 2026 on a winning streak. The city saw its historic decline in violent crime continue, and fatal overdoses plummeted once again to a 10-year low.

Yet the data was soon met with a hefty dose of reality. A bone-chilling cold snap gave way to a debilitating and dangerous winter storm, blanketing the city with snow and cooling the sense of burning optimism projected by those who hold power. For the most vulnerable residents and those who fight for their livelihoods, the progress boasted in press releases and social media posts didn't jibe with what drug users and unhoused neighbors are actually experiencing in the streets.

The storm and the sub-zero windchills that lingered demonstrated that the pictures of progress painted by those in power have been weaponized to retain power at the expense of those who have none.

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 568 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2025, marking a historic 27% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data from the Maryland Department of Health.

The numbers indicate that the city's fatal overdose rate continues to trend downward after years of climbing, with the death toll twice surpassing 1,000 people.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Filter: "HHS Unveils “STREETS” Initiative, Ramping Up Coerced Drug Treatment"

At a sumptuous resort just outside Washington, DC, on February 2 for “Prevention Day,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his Safety Through Recovery, Engagement and Evidence-based Treatment and Supports (STREETS) Initiative. He opened by scapegoating people who use drugs as “negative producers” and “drags on the whole [health care] system.”

STREETS is billed as a $100-million investment to “solve long-standing homelessness issues, fight opioid addiction and improve public safety by expanding treatment.” It will be piloted in eight as-yet-unspecified cities, and is designed to operate in tandem with “assisted outpatient treatment” (AOT)—court-ordered psychiatric probation, similar to probation for drug violations. AOT saddles participants with the ever-present threat of being involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility for noncompliance, or even just a technical violation. HHS will soon offer $10 million in AOT grants (though this amount has been higher in previous years).

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A frigid Baltimore storm highlights the cold shoulder those in power have given to vulnerable residents

Logan Hullinger — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:08:14 GMT

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This is the first newsletter in collaboration with Scalawag Magazine, an abolitionist publication covering oppressed communities in the South. As part of the partnership, the Redux Newsletter will now publish on Tuesdays – but expect the same radical harm reduction journalism you've come to love.

At first glance, Baltimore entered 2026 on a winning streak. The city saw its historic decline in violent crime continue, and fatal overdoses plummeted once again to a 10-year low.

The storm and the sub-zero windchills that lingered demonstrated that the pictures of progress painted by those in power have been weaponized to retain power at the expense of those who have none.

"These are the days that the most vulnerable of us die because of the weather," said James Crawford Jr., a seasoned advocate for unhoused residents and a member of the advocacy group Housing Our Neighbors.

Not all drug users are unhoused, and not all unhoused people are drug users. Although a whopping 77% of unhoused residents reported being addicted to a substance last year, the groups are more united by the fact that they are heavily stigmatized and at increased risk of death during the winter.

With a severe lack of shelter beds and a dearth of outreach workers, the city’s unhoused residents face high risks of hypothermia, frostbite, and death. For drug users, studies have shown that cold snaps like Baltimore just experienced can increase the likelihood of fatal overdoses by 30%.

Local data — at least that is made public — on these matters is extremely limited. A Public Information Act request by Mobtown Redux seeking monthly fatal overdoses over the past decade was nearly completely redacted, and the publication is currently awaiting a response to monthly death data for unhoused residents.

The data that is available, however, makes one thing clear: Far too many have died from preventable deaths.

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Since 2015, the state has recorded nearly 900 deaths among those experiencing homelessness in Baltimore, 47 of whom died from hypothermia, according to state health department data obtained by Mobtown Redux. That is likely a significant undercount, as those are only deaths the department has confirmed, and local law enforcement is responsible for determining who is deemed homeless.

In that same time frame, more than 9,000 Baltimoreans have died of overdoses, with older Black men dying at more than twice the rate of white men at certain points in time.

In 2025, there were 568 overdose deaths in Baltimore, marking a historic 27% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data from the Maryland Department of Health. It was the second consecutive year Baltimore saw such a drop, mirroring a nationwide trend that calls into question any assertions that Baltimore-specific policies are driving the decline.

However, the disproportionate impact on poor Black communities, particularly in West Baltimore, has remained steady.

“While this data is preliminary, the reduction in overdoses that we’re seeing is further proof that harm reduction works," Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement.

"This progress is what happens when everyone, from the Baltimore City Health Department, to first responders, our partners, and the community, works together to save lives. But there’s more to do; any life lost to an overdose is one too many."

Scott's right to say the city could do more, but he did not acknowledge what the city is actively doing wrong. His office did not respond to questions about the city's repeated willingness to sign blank checks for a police department that openly targets drug users for arrest and has ramped up drug enforcement.

While the mayor hasn't yet unveiled his budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the city's priorities were made crystal clear in last year's fiscal plan, which cut the health department's budget while boosting the police budget to a monumental $613 million.

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These misinvestments are an affront to a widespread consensus about overdose prevention. Studies have shown that drug-war policing, such as what the BPD is conducting, can increase overdose death rates and increase violence.

Gov. Wes Moore seems to have followed suit. He has touted record drops in fatal overdoses and recently released a budget proposal calling for a modest 6% increase to the Behavioral Health Administration. But the plan also includes record funding for law enforcement, and its release came as the state purged the words "harm reduction" from its lexicon and advocates anticipate possible cuts to the state's leading harm reduction grant program for local organizations.

"At a time when Maryland is moving in the right direction, the federal government is threatening to put funding for these proven programs at risk," Moore said in a statement. "We have more work to do—but by working together and continuing smart investments, we will keep fighting for those seeking recovery," Moore said in a statement.

Aside from the governor's Freudian slip about those who seek abstinence being the ones worth saving, a more prominent theme is that those in power are following a drug-war playbook that fuels police crackdowns and nullifies any claim that public health is a priority. Just as the winters have grown increasingly cold, those in power have increasingly handed the arms of the state more money.

The "tough on crime" game works to uphold an image of strength to some voters, while taking credit for nationwide trends helps portray a caring leader. In tandem, these factors comprise a strategy that maintains the status quo and the leaders who uphold it, as those most impacted demand reforms.

So it wasn't surprising when the governor praised State's Attorney Ivan Bates — who reversed his predecessor's de facto decriminalization policy — and the city's historically corrupt police force in an X post about declining fatal overdose rates.

Nor was it surprising when Baltimore enlisted police officers to sweep unhoused residents off the street — even if they refuse services — and connect them with other city agencies during the recent storm. With the high rates of mental illness among the city's unhoused population, the only surprise is that no one ended up dead, like the three Black people who officers shot or restrained this past summer.

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The needs of Baltimoreans who are unhoused, use drugs or are in crisis have been discarded in pursuit of bolstering the police state and allowing the cancer to fester. The brazen disregard of calls for social reforms, replaced with seemingly unlimited funding for the police force, is what Baltimore deems "public safety."

The most vulnerable of our neighbors have witnessed those public safety strategies become de facto public executions.

A logical next step would be to reallocate the bloated police budget to ramp up the city's harm reduction infrastructure; create community-led crisis response teams to replace cops; expand shelter capacity and slap them with oversight; and build affordable housing that does not discriminate based on factors such as drug use.

Those reforms, however, often seem unattainable. The lack of progress toward these goals can make things feel hopeless. But this is no time to bend the knee and succumb to nihilistic thought.

The winter storm demonstrated that Baltimore can seemingly come to a halt when met with a powerful enough force. Coordinated campaigns, organizing en masse and relentless pressure can do the same. It may take some time, but advocates must turn up the heat to relentlessly push those in power to do better — or push them out of office entirely.

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "Hysteria and harm reduction: What the hell is going on?"

To support harm reduction or not to support harm reduction, that is the question. And the livelihoods of those who use drugs hang in the balance as it echoes throughout Baltimore, the state of Maryland and the United States.

Fear and uncertainty about the future of compassionate care for drug users came to a head after the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration on Tuesday announced it would slash nearly $2 billion in grant funding for organizations providing mental health and substance use services. The agency insisted the programs didn't align with the agenda of President Donald Trump's administration, fomenting widespread fears that nonprofits in Baltimore and beyond would no longer be able to provide services responsible for keeping their vulnerable neighbors alive.

Then, after bipartisan backlash, the Trump administration reversed the decision the next day.

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 568 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2025, marking a historic 27% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data from the Maryland Department of Health.

The numbers indicate that the city's fatal overdose rate continues to trend downward after years of climbing, with the death toll twice surpassing 1,000 people.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Filter: "DULF Challenge: Health Canada Official Flounders on the Stand"

A senior Canadian bureaucrat struggled on the witness stand to reconcile past statements by the federal government with its claim in court that it was not completely closed off to the idea of a non-medical safe supply model.

The January 26 hearing was for a constitutional challenge to the criminal convictions of Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) co-founders Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, for operating an unsanctioned Vancouver compassion club selling tested heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine to 47 members.

Eric Costen, who has held various senior roles with Health Canada, didn’t willingly attend—he had to be subpoenaed to appear.

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Hysteria and harm reduction: What the hell is going on?

Logan Hullinger — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 13:09:12 GMT

Fear and uncertainty about the future of compassionate care for drug users came to a head after the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration on Tuesday announced it would slash nearly $2 billion in grant funding for organizations providing mental health and substance use services. The agency insisted the programs didn't align with the agenda of President Donald Trump's administration, fomenting widespread fears that nonprofits in Baltimore and beyond would no longer be able to provide services responsible for keeping their vulnerable neighbors alive.

Then, after bipartisan backlash, the Trump administration reversed the decision the next day.

"While we are incredibly proud of this victory, we must be clear that this was chaos that never should have happened in the first place," Mobilize Recovery, an advocacy group that was slated to lose $500,000, said in a statement.

"Putting life-saving lifelines for overdose prevention, naloxone access, and veteran services at risk created unnecessary fear in a community that is already under immense pressure; recovery should never be used as a political bargaining chip."

This week's chaos, however, is about more than just politics. The maelstrom was part of an ongoing, strategic assault on drug users and their right to life — one that is predicated on either sowing confusion, stripping programs of funds, burning down the harm reduction infrastructure or all of the above.

The administration's move would have impacted more than just harm reduction initiatives, with substance use and mental health treatment also in the crosshairs. Yet programs dedicated ensuring people can use drugs as safely as possible have been a primary target under the Trump administration.

The shakeup highlighted a critical weakness within the harm reduction movement, namely that many of the organizations comprising it rely, at least in part, on government funding. These dollars can be pulled at any given moment, giving drug-war bureaucrats the ability to hamstring programs in one fell swoop.

Without a comprehensive network of grassroots support, there aren't sufficient means to fill such a gap, meaning whoever's in office can largely dictate both the capacity of programs and what services can exist to begin with.

As evidenced this week, confusion is a powerful weapon. Even after reports surfaced that the Trump administration reversed its decision, local media reports indicated that the move prompted the Pride Center of Maryland to continue with plans to lay off employees, cut wages and scale back services.

Though the organization offers more than just harm reduction services, the move illustrates an important lesson: The harm reduction movement was founded upon boots-on-the-ground organizing, and it must remain organized and capable of weathering government-led assaults to maintain its ability to serve drug users.

Destabilization is a death threat not just to the movement, but to the people it serves.

The recent chaos, therefore, is likely an intentional effort to disrupt harm reduction initiatives by flummoxing the organizations that provide them. The government doesn't need to burn the dollars; it just needs to flex its power and ensure people know who controls them.

That confusion extends to state and local levels of government.

The Maryland Department of Health, for example, recently scrubbed any mention of “harm reduction” from the Advancing Cross-Cutting Engagement and Service Strategies for People Who Use Drugs” program, also known as ACCESS.

The program is the state’s leading grant initiative for organizations that provide care to people who use drugs, and the move has raised questions about whether it’s a pragmatic terminology shift to guard against federal threats or an outright capitulation to the federal government’s assault on public health.

As Trump ramps up the drug war and slashes funding that’s crucial to prevent overdose deaths, the latest request for applications not only abides by the new guidance but also gives little time for organizations to adjust their own language when they apply.

“I don’t think the work will continue at the same volume that it is now, or has been,” said Erin Russell, a harm reduction consultant who started the ACCESS program while chief of the former Center for Harm Reduction Services. “There are plenty of programs that were maybe renting space and offering drop-in services that are not going to move back to the trunk of someone’s car. Or places that were going to buy mobile vans are now not going to do that level of expansion.”

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Mobtown Redux now accepts donations. For the other kind of tips, contact me securely at lhullinger@mobtownredux.news or on Signal at loganhullinger.24.

The state's decision to kill the term "harm reduction" is innocuous to some, and experts have insisted that harm reduction programs will continue to provide care. But paired with fears that cuts to the ACCESS grant program are looming in the upcoming fiscal year, the move represents the ongoing denormalization of harm reduction itself.

In Baltimore, the city with the highest fatal overdose death rate in the nation, that comes at a time when sustainable progress is seemingly within reach. There was a historic 25.5% decrease from the year prior in 2024, and preliminary data shows that trend continued well into 2025.

Unfortunately, while city officials claim to embrace harm reduction initiatives, actions speak louder than words.

Scott's new list of legislative priorities omitted legislation to legalize overdose prevention centers for 2026, with harm reduction advocates announcing last month they wouldn't pursue such bills in the upcoming General Assembly session.

The mayor has refused to commit to establishing city-sanctioned sites despite multiple avenues to pursue them, and Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Taylor has more candidly indicated that the city won't pursue OPCs to avoid risking federal funding.

The abandonment of more ambitious drug policies came after the city cut the health department's budget last year and handed the cops an additional $20 million. Those funds have seemingly facilitated even more drug-war policing, with law enforcement recently touting its latest crackdown.

With police data showing drug-related arrests flourished last year, State's Attorney Ivan Bates announced on Wednesday the seizure of "nine kilos of narcotics and over $55,000 in cash" as part of a bust involving a group of people selling drugs in the 1800 block of North Collington Avenue and in the 2600 block of Greenmount Avenue.

“Drug trafficking organizations like this one inflict real and lasting trauma on our communities, creating conditions of fear and instability that erode public safety and diminish residents’ quality of life. They fuel violence, addiction, and disorder in neighborhoods that deserve stability and opportunity. Efforts of this scale are simply not possible without strong collaboration across local, state, and federal partners,” Bates said in a press release.

Like other public officials in Baltimore, Bates has insisted that those who buy and sell drugs in certain neighborhoods foment fear and chaos while peddling lethal substances to residents.

Studies documenting the Iron Law of Prohibition, however, have shown it's actually the police — and the racist drug laws they enforce — are the ones that inflict these plagues on communities in Baltimore and beyond.

The drug war isn't new, nor is the underfunding of harm reduction programs. Public officials' refusal to fully embrace life-saving initiatives has also been an issue that dates back decades.

What is becoming clear, though, is that the wave of funding cuts and strategic disorientation from the Trump administration is highlighting not only the open disdain for harm reduction but also the vulnerabilities within the movement. And it all comes at a time when holding back isn't an option.

At best, there will continue to be uncertainty as to where care for drug users stands in Baltimore and elsewhere in the nation. At worst, the funding sources that those on the frontlines rely on will be gutted.

In Baltimore and the state of Maryland, elected officials haven't shown much evidence they're on our side — or at least have the spines to fight for drug users in times of uncertainty. This dilemma is not something that will be solved by sitting around and hoping for change.

This epoch underscores the need to bolster mutual aid networks, ramp up grassroots organizing, and adapt to create a harm reduction infrastructure that allows services to seamlessly transition underground if necessary.

The movement must become louder. It must become larger. It must become stronger. If it fails to do so, it's drug users who stand to suffer the most.

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "Baltimore City Council wants health officials to do more with less as they look to drive down OD deaths"

With harm reduction initiatives in the federal government's crosshairs and a slimmed-down budget, the Baltimore City Health Department has nonetheless maintained ambitious goals as it looks to curb overdoses.

Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Taylor proudly presented a two-year draft plan to cut fatal overdoses 40% by 2040 to the Baltimore City Council's Committee on Legislative Investigations on Thursday. The plan, first unveiled in July by the Mayor's Office of Overdose Response, came on the heels of historic declines in fatal overdoses in 2024, with last year's numbers showing promise. However, despite uncertainty about whether that trend will hold — and about just how much President Donald Trump's assault on public health will hit Baltimore — the plan just isn't enough for some council members.

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 777 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2024, a 25.5% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data.

In the 12-month period ending in November, Baltimore saw 554 deaths, a death rate of 94.6 per 100,000 people. Statewide, there were 1,262 deaths, a death rate of 20.4 per 100,000 people.

The data shows that fatal overdoses continue to trend downward after years of climbing, though poor Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore continue to suffer the most.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Filter: "Maryland Scrubs the Term 'Harm Reduction' From Key Grant Program"

The Maryland Department of Health has scrubbed any mention of “harm reduction” from the state’s leading grant program for organizations that provide care to people who use drugs. The move raises questions about whether it’s a pragmatic terminology shift to guard against federal threats, or outright capitulation to the federal government’s assault on public health.

The “Advancing Cross-Cutting Engagement and Service Strategies for People who Use Drugs” program, known as ACCESS, made history in 2020 as the first in the state to provide funding directly to harm reduction organizations.

Years later, as President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up its drug war and slashes funding that’s crucial to prevent overdose deaths, the latest request for applications (RFA) from the Maryland health department’s Office of Harm Reduction—which gives little time for organizations to adjust their own language when they apply—has dropped the name of the movement from which the office takes its title.

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Stay tuned for next week's Redux Newsletter, which goes live every Saturday morning. Any pieces I write for the Baltimore Beat, Filter and other publications will also be published here.

Maryland Scrubs the Term “Harm Reduction” From Key Grant Program

Logan Hullinger — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:20:40 GMT

Years later, as President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up its drug war and slashes funding that’s crucial to prevent overdose deaths, the latest request for applications (RFA) from the Maryland health department’s Office of Harm Reduction—which gives little time for organizations to adjust their own language when they apply—has dropped the name of the movement from which the office takes its title.

This follows open hostility to harm reduction from the Trump administration, as demonstrated by a July “Dear Colleague” letter, which stated that Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funds “will no longer be used to support poorly defined so-called ‘harm reduction’ activities.”

“In my opinion, Maryland is taking [federal guidance] to an extreme,” Erin Russell, a harm reduction consultant who started the ACCESS program while chief of the former Center for Harm Reduction Services, told Filter.

“I think these are unspoken messages about what their leadership’s opinion is on harm reduction,” she said of the Maryland administration. “They’re not being transparent about the funding amount, and they’re not supporting the team by producing a transparent and normal RFA process. The scrubbing of harm reduction is not coming from the harm reduction team themselves, so we can only assume that someone higher up is parsing this change.”

Funding for ACCESS grants has been made up of both state and federal dollars. A state health department spokesperson told Filter that the program allocated a total of $26 million in the most recent fiscal year, but declined to comment when asked about the next budget allocation and whether there would be cuts.

The program has been responsible for allocating millions to local harm reduction organizations annually, and there are fears that there will be a significant decline in grant funding for the upcoming fiscal year.

The ACCESS RFA opened on December 22, and will close on January 22. The state health department says the timeframe exceeds the three-week minimum for notices required under state law. But Russell called the timeframe “absurd.”

The request was issued over the holiday season, she noted, giving organizations even less time to apply for funds when they will likely have to modify their application language to do so.

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Mobtown Redux now accepts donations. For the other kind of tips, contact me securely at lhullinger@mobtownredux.news or on Signal at loganhullinger.24.

The terminology change in the RFA, which replaces “harm reduction” with phrases such as “services designed to reduce morbidity and mortality among people who use drugs,” isn’t in and of itself the problem, Russel said. Regardless of what compassionate care for people who use drugs is called, the movement will go on, and life-saving services will continue.

However, the move, combined with actions at the federal level, has negative implications for local harm reduction initiatives. Not only could they receive less aid because the grant program itself is underfunded, but they could be pushed further underground.

“I don’t think the work will continue at the same volume that it is now, or has been,” Russell said. “There are plenty of programs that were maybe renting space and offering drop-in services that are not going to move back to the trunk of someone’s car. Or places that were going to buy mobile vans are now not going to do that level of expansion.”

“It hurts people,” Russell said, “and more people will die with the system as it’s been redefined.”

In July, Trump signed an executive order in July to criminalize homelessness, ramp up forced institutionalization of people with mental illnesses and substance use disorders, and defund life-saving harm reduction programs. The SAMHSA letter, stating that certain harm reduction programs "only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm," followed days later.

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Filter that a shift in how the Maryland government speaks about harm reduction may be a necessary hardship under the Trump administration.

“For people who understand and practice [harm reduction], hearing the words vilified is unpleasant—that’s the minimum,” Sharfstein said. “It’s very frustrating. It’s unfortunate, but in the end, I think this is a compromise that they may need to make to be able to provide services that really do save people’s lives.”

It’s unclear what policy impact these changes will have, he added, as the federal government seems to have thus far equated harm reduction with programs such as overdose prevention centers, of which there are only three sanctioned examples in the country.

In Baltimore, where OPC have been debated for years as the city’s fatal overdose rate climbed to the highest in the nation, the federal guidance has already been felt on that front.

In October, Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Taylor told Filter that the city wouldn’t pursue these life-saving spaces because of fears of losing federal funding.

More recently, Mayor Brandon Scott (D) removed OPC from his list of legislative priorities. And members of the state’s Harm Reduction Standing Advisory Committee announced in December that OPC legislation wouldn’t be introduced in the upcoming state General Assembly session, as they will instead channel their energy into decriminalizing drug “paraphernalia.”

Still, state officials have insisted that existing programming will not suffer. Health Department spokesperson David McCallister told Filter that the agency is simply adjusting its language to abide by guidance from the Trump administration.

“This funding, along with state funds and other federal grants, is critical to our mission of continuing life-saving, evidence-based interventions for Marylanders who use drugs,” he said. “The Maryland Department of Health remains focused on protecting the health and safety of our communities, which includes addressing the health, well-being and mortality of Marylanders who use drugs.”

The state likely cannot afford to have its harm reduction efforts take a hit. Its overdose prevention initiatives have contributed to a notable decline in deaths statewide. In Baltimore, which has by far the highest fatal overdose rate in the state, there were 777 overdose deaths in 2024, a historic 25.5-percent decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data.

In the 12-month period ending in October, the most recent data available, Baltimore saw 560 deaths, indicating that the trend continued into much of 2025.

Update, January 13: This article was updated to reflect information about the last ACCESS budget allocation, received from the Maryland Department of Health after publication time.

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This article was originally published by Filter, an online magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. You can support Filter here.

Baltimore City Council wants health officials to do more with less as they look to drive down OD deaths

Logan Hullinger — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 13:44:30 GMT

Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Taylor proudly presented a two-year draft plan to cut fatal overdoses 40% by 2040 to the Baltimore City Council's Committee on Legislative Investigations on Thursday. The plan, first unveiled in July by the Mayor's Office of Overdose Response, came on the heels of historic declines in fatal overdoses in 2024, with last year's numbers showing promise. However, despite uncertainty about whether that trend will hold — and about just how much President Donald Trump's assault on public health will hit Baltimore — the plan just isn't enough for some council members.

"I don't think 40% by 2040 is the number," said Council President Zeke Cohen. "I think Baltimore is better than that. I think we have shown over the last couple of years, with tremendous reductions in violence, that we can beat expectations substantially. We already see this trend where the deaths from overdose are going down in our city."

The plan, expected to be finalized soon, provides a holistic view of the crisis, embodying a ground-up approach. For instance, many of its prevention initiatives focus on general quality of life, such as increasing access to transportation, education, food assistance, employment, and housing.

It recommends bolstering initiatives targeted at those disproportionately affected by the crisis, namely older Black men. It also includes low-barrier, mobile harm reduction and crisis services in addition to brick-and-mortar locations.

Other recommendations include increased data transparency, educational campaigns, expanded 988 services, 24/7 stabilization centers, expanded access to treatment, and better oversight of treatment programs.

"The epidemiologists were involved in that puzzle and had those conversations between themselves, BCMOOR and the mayor's office to make sure that they arrived at a number that was realistic," Taylor said. "We can omit the number, and the plan was always to amend that number if it looked like we needed to be even more ambitious."

Health officials aim to build upon existing progress in combating the overdose crisis. There were 777 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2024, a 25.5% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data.

In the 12-month period ending in October, Baltimore saw 560 deaths. Last year's numbers haven't been finalized, although the existing preliminary data indicate that the downward trend continued throughout much of last year.

Yet the fact that there have been gains in preventing fatal overdoses is the exact reason why the 40% reduction by health officials is problematic to council members.

"When we see from 2023 to 2025, it's decreasing over 50%, clearly 40% by 2040 doesn't make much sense," said Isaac "Yitzy" Schleifer, chair of the Committee on Legislative Investigations.

Isn't it nice that council members are pushing the health department to aim higher?

Their comments came with a hefty dose of irony. They've largely refrained from pushing for drug policy reform, but they seemingly took no issue with cutting the health department's budget by 3.5% last year, leaving it with less than $201 million. At the same time, they approved boosting the Baltimore Police Department's budget by $22 million, bringing it to a monumental $613 million.

One could argue that the hundreds of millions of dollars the city has won from opioid-related lawsuits will address the health department's shortfalls, but that money is not meant to supplant existing funding. In addition, it's less than the cops' annual budget, and those dollars are only a temporary boost that won't provide a consistent stream of funds to combat the overdose crisis down the line.

No amount of money, however, will reach its potential as long as public health is not a priority in Baltimore. The War on Drugs has thrived under the current slate of council members, mirroring the failures of their predecessors. Despite myriad evidence showing that heavy-handed policing drives up fatal overdose rates, they often seem more concerned with clearing corners and pushing back on methadone clinics than actually pursuing drug policy reforms.

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Mobtown Redux now accepts donations. For the other kind of tips, contact me securely at lhullinger@mobtownredux.news or on Signal at loganhullinger.24.

But this isn't just about money and the War on Drugs. It's about the numbers themselves.

Although Cohen cited the city's historic decline in violent crime as evidence that the city could drive down overdoses by more than 40% over the next 15 years, it's not that simple.

There is insufficient evidence to support the assertion that trends in violent crime can be extrapolated to those involving overdose death rates. The declines in both areas are also part of a national trend, meaning Baltimore is far from being unique. Given that many other cities are touting massive drops in crime and fewer overdose deaths, one cannot simply attribute the numbers to policies specific to Baltimore.

Fatal overdose trends are also not linear. It was just two years ago that Baltimore saw more than 1,000 overdose deaths — numbers had been increasing for a decade, peaking in 2021 — and it would be foolish to assume that less than two years' worth of data solidifies a downward trend.

And all of this sits against a grim backdrop at the federal level.

Trump signed an executive order in July to criminalize homelessness, ramp up forced institutionalization of those with mental illnesses and substance use disorders, and defund life-saving harm reduction programs.

The same month, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration issued a letter that explicitly mentioned overdose prevention centers, stating that certain harm reduction programs "only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm," so the agency's funds will no longer be used to "support poorly defined so-called 'harm reduction' activities."

Local officials are already shutting the door on much-needed reforms because they fear retaliation, including losing federal funding at a time when they're already operating on a shoestring budget.

The strategic plan to reduce overdoses, for example, contains ambiguous language that would theoretically allow for OPCs. But Scott's recently announced list of legislative priorities omitted legislation to legalize the sites for 2026, with harm reduction advocates announcing last month they wouldn't pursue such bills in the upcoming General Assembly session.

Meanwhile, the mayor has refused to commit to establishing city-sanctioned sites despite multiple avenues to pursue them, and Taylor has more candidly indicated that the city won't pursue OPCs to avoid risking federal funding.

The problem, therefore, lies not in the numbers proposed in the strategic plan but in the individuals who have the power to implement policies to achieve a sustained reduction in overdose deaths.

Members of the city council say they are concerned about the overdose crisis. Yet they don't seem to be concerned about the drug war that sentences those who use drugs to jail cells or graves.

They'll cut public health funding despite knowing that a despot already has public health dollars on the chopping block, and they'll subsequently push health officials to do more with less.

Scott's administration and council members must get on the same page. They can go back and forth over to what extent they want to see overdose death tolls decline, but any proposed numbers are arbitrary without policies that have drug users' livelihoods in their best interest.

If they want to save lives, they must coordinate, cooperate and legislate. And they must do so based on the evidence cited by public health officials and harm reductionists for decades, not the drug war's demand for drug policy regression, crackdowns and more police funding.

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "Baltimore once again balks at OPCs as advocates drop push for state legislation this year"

As Baltimore's top officials wade into the new year, the likelihood of their policy priorities materializing remains unclear. Yet what's certain is that those in power still won't commit to using everything at their disposal to save the lives of those who use drugs.

Mayor Brandon Scott's recently announced list of legislative priorities omitted overdose prevention centers, or OPCs, for 2026. Legislation to legalize the facilities at the state level made the cut in previous years, but harm reduction advocates announced last month that they wouldn't pursue OPC bills in the upcoming General Assembly session. They will instead channel their energy into decriminalizing drug paraphernalia and, after unsuccessfully advocating for state-level legalization for the better part of a decade, the spotlight now rests fully on Baltimore to take matters into its own hands.

It doesn't seem like Scott's administration is prepared to meet that moment.

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 777 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2024, a 25.5% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data.

In the 12-month period ending in November, Baltimore saw 554 deaths, a death rate of 94.6 per 100,000 people. Statewide, there were 1,262 deaths, a death rate of 20.4 per 100,000 people.

The data shows that fatal overdoses continue to trend downward after years of climbing, though poor Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore continue to suffer the most.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Filter: "Oklahoma Bill Would Require EMS to Call the Cops After Reversing an OD"

On January 6 the Senate confirmed Sara A. Carter Bailey as the new “drug czar,” the colloquial title for the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), by a vote of 52-48. The former Fox News contributor was nominated by President Donald Trump in March 2025 and is the first woman to lead the ONDCP. She will likely use the position to amplify fentanyl misinformation and conspiracy theories targeting immigrants.

“Under [Trump’s] leadership, we will reassert our fundamental right to live healthy lives,” Carter stated following her confirmation. “We will hold accountable the narco-terrorists who infringe upon this right, participating in the deliberate poisoning of tens of thousands of Americans each year. They will no longer kill our families, friends, neighbors and even children with impunity. At the same time, I will ensure that every parent, family member and child have the resources they need to prevent and combat addiction. I will stand with our brave law enforcement officials, and with every family who has lost a loved one to drug overdose.”

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Statewide harm reduction training to resume amid concerns about delay, implementation

Logan Hullinger — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 20:38:59 GMT

Harm reduction workers on the frontlines of the overdose crisis have gone more than six months without a statewide training program that’s been essential for a workforce already in the federal government’s crosshairs.

HealthHIV, a national nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., opened registration for the new curriculum on December 12, but classes won't start until January 20. State officials and HealthHIV had previously said it would begin this fall.

The training, which provides education on syringe service programs, best practices on providing compassionate care for drug users, and official certifications for those working to save the lives their lives, was abruptly halted last summer, handicapping local organizations’ abilities to bring on more harm reduction workers — something that has become imperative amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on compassionate care for drug users and astronomically high fatal overdose rates.

The new curriculum, called the Opioid Associated Disease Prevention and Outreach Programs Academy, will include self-paced courses that cover topics such as outreach and de-escalation; motivational interviewing; wound care; drug information and drug checking; and overdose prevention and response, said Brian Hujdich, executive director of HealthHIV.

Advanced-level courses will also be offered, and HealthHIV plans to launch a podcast highlighting the stories of frontline workers and those who use drugs.

“HealthHIV has a deep understanding of Maryland’s harm reduction community and workforce, informed by our direct local service over many years and through various state-wide programs throughout Maryland,” Hujdich said.

“We are focused on building a more educated, skilled, and responsive workforce dedicated to reducing harm throughout Maryland, using our proven ability to strengthen a culturally competent workforce equipped to meet the diverse needs of Marylanders. We intentionally design our programs with input from the community and choose faculty, instructional strategies, and resources that reflect the most current, relevant, and evidence-informed practices.”

But despite the details of the new training coming to light, HealthHIV’s takeover has not gone without pushback from local organizations.

In a recording of a November 19 call obtained by the Baltimore Beat that included HealthHIV, state health department officials, and local organizations, leaders in the harm reduction field peppered the organization with questions about the qualifications of trainers, the lack of in-person training and the delay in the program’s implementation.

"We've hired people. We've been waiting months for it. We're expecting now to wait until January for that to come out?” said the director of one harm reduction organization.

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Mobtown Redux now accepts donations. For the other kind of tips, contact me securely at lhullinger@mobtownredux.news or on Signal at loganhullinger.24.

HealthHIV noted that the rollout faced challenges because of ever-changing federal guidance under Trump, whose administration has targeted harm reduction programs and limited what services can receive federal dollars. The organization said they also needed to tailor its programming to the unique needs of Maryland.

Still, it seemed to do little to assuage the concerns of those on the call who had become accustomed to the previous organization leading the program.

“We depended on those trainers that were experts in what we do, these direct services that are lifesaving in our state and our communities,” the director who questioned the timeline of the rollout added.

The lapse in statewide harm reduction training dates back to June, when the Maryland Harm Reduction Training Institute, an arm of Behavioral Health System Baltimore, was notified that the state health department did not choose the organization to continue running the program. The institute ceased all training less than two weeks later, and there has been no comprehensive statewide training since.

The program, which had overseen training for six years, had exploded in popularity as those who use drugs in Maryland died at astronomical rates. Under BHSB, more than 8,500 people received training in 22,000 sessions, with enrollment in courses growing by 1092% between 2021 and 2024, according to the organization.

Public health experts and drug policy reform advocates have at least partly attributed a recent decline in overdose deaths to harm reduction initiatives. There were 777 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2024, a historic 25.5% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data from the state health department. The death rate continued to decline in 2025, though an annual death toll is not yet available.

“One thing that's unique about Maryland's infrastructure is how connected all of the programs have been. And it was largely because [the Maryland Harm Reduction Training Institute] and our trainers were local – they were from Maryland,” said Zach Kosinski, harm reduction director at BHSB.

“Many had worked in Maryland at Maryland programs, had personal relationships with folks, and really were part of that backbone tying everything together. And then we worked hand in hand with the state. I think it's absolutely critical that we have something like that right now in a time when resources are beginning to dwindle, been funding cuts.”

State health officials and HealthHIV have countered that point by noting that it’s not a stranger to Maryland. In a statement, the department told the Beat it is “confident that HealthHIV has the experience and capacity needed to continue to be an effective partner in this work, and will continue to seek opportunities for input on the development and curation of content.”

The nonprofit led the state’s Alive! Maryland program supporting the local public health workforce with harm reduction-focused training and technical assistance, which began in 2021 and ended in 2023. In 2023 and 2024, it led the state’s TEACH CHW program, which provided harm reduction training to local community health workers.

Even so, HealthHIV officials have admitted these may be difficult times for local harm reduction organizations that were accustomed to the previous training programming.

“We absolutely know and feel everything that you're sharing and understand that change is incredibly difficult,” said Melissa Kelley, training director at HealthHIV, during the November 19 call.

“Everything is changing right now. Everything from the top down. So, it's hard to manage because everyone has expectations. And as you said, you had a really great program before. And the unknown, you don't know what the new one's going to look like. But I assure you that not only will you be in great hands, but we are available and we want your feedback.”

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This article was published in partnership with the Baltimore Beat, a Black-led, Black-controlled nonprofit newspaper and media outlet. Click here to support them.

Baltimore once again balks at OPCs as advocates drop push for state legislation this year

Logan Hullinger — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 14:00:34 GMT

Mayor Brandon Scott's recently announced list of legislative priorities omitted overdose prevention centers, or OPCs, for 2026. Legislation to legalize the facilities at the state level made the cut in previous years, but harm reduction advocates announced last month that they wouldn't pursue OPC bills in the upcoming General Assembly session. They will instead channel their energy into decriminalizing drug paraphernalia and, after unsuccessfully advocating for state-level legalization for the better part of a decade, the spotlight now rests fully on Baltimore to take matters into its own hands.

It doesn't seem like Scott's administration is prepared to meet that moment.

“Mayor Scott is unequivocal in his support of overdose prevention centers as a tool in the toolbelt to keep people alive, and the administration is exploring all possible avenues for how to do it in Baltimore," the mayor's office told Mobtown Redux in a statement.

In the absence of state law, researchers have suggested that Baltimore could establish city-sanctioned facilities by issuing an emergency declaration to permit OPCs unilaterally. New York City also demonstrated in 2021 that coordinated efforts among city agencies can make it possible.

The mayor's refusal to commit to city-level reforms introduces more uncertainty two months after Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Taylor indicated that the city would abandon attempts to provide life-saving spaces for drug users because of fears they could risk federal funding under President Donald Trump's authoritarian regime.

The same month, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration issued a letter that explicitly mentioned OPCs, stating that certain harm reduction programs "only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm," so the agency's funds will no longer be used to "support poorly defined so-called 'harm reduction' activities."

“While local public health would love to do everything that could potentially fit under our umbrella, we always have to be cognizant of who’s in office right now, not only federally but at the state level and city level,” Taylor said in an October interview, before it was known that state legislation would not be introduced.

“I want to be compassionate,” she continued. “But does being compassionate mean that we are not going to be able to maintain our levels of federal funding, where we need to do all of the other services that we need to do?”

Despite an increased sense of urgency among harm reductionists in the aftermath of three mass overdose events last year, the city's failure to seize the moment and wholeheartedly pursue OPCs is nothing new.

This summer, the mayor's administration offered a similar response when it tiptoed around the idea of city-sanctioned facilities, one of many responses that indicated it would not commit to establishing sites in Baltimore. Those comments came on the heels of Councilman Ryan Dorsey ramping up his rhetoric in support of the sites, with other council members also appearing to warm up to the idea of OPCs in recent months.

Contrary to what many believe, these are not radical demands. The efficacy of overdose prevention centers is backed up by a plethora of research, which shows they reduce HIV and hepatitis transmission, prevent overdose deaths, and reduce public use of drugs.

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Mobtown Redux now accepts donations. For the other kind of tips, contact me securely at lhullinger@mobtownredux.news or on Signal at loganhullinger.24.

As the future of OPCs in Baltimore looks grim, the one thing that the city has continued to rally behind is the decriminalization of drug paraphernalia, which Mayor Scott has once again named as a legislative priority in 2026. Unlike OPC legislation, it's had some legislative success, clearing both chambers in 2021 before being vetoed by former Gov. Larry Hogan.

Still, as evidenced by the tenure of former State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, decriminalization as a whole is another issue the city could take into its own hands — if not for State's Attorney Ivan Bates, a known drug warrior who is running for re-election this year.

To some Baltimore officials, the existence of state legislation has served as an off-ramp allowing them to circumvent demands for reform-minded governing at the city level. Trump's tenure has gifted them another excuse, and they've proven they're more than willing to abide by the dictums that come down from the White House at the expense of drug policy reform.

Drug users are caught in the middle of all this, left to rot with a tainted drug supply because the city fears an authoritarian regime. The moment could mark a wasted opportunity amid a historic decline in overdose deaths.

There were 777 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2024, a 25.5% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data.

That trend has seemingly continued. In the 12-month period ending in November of last year, Baltimore saw 554 deaths, a death rate of 94.6 per 100,000 people.

That death rate remains astronomically high, and the data also shows that poor Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore continue to suffer the most.

Even though the number of overdose deaths quadruples that of homicides in Baltimore, officials are significantly more focused on a historic drop in violent crime than on the overdose crisis. An important lesson to be found in both trends is that the reductions are part of national declines that could easily reverse without advancements in policy.

This is no longer just about public health — it's about whether Baltimore is willing to fight back against an oppressive regime to protect its most vulnerable. And every day that reforms are stalled because of fears of retaliation, people die. And then more will die. And then some more.

To those in power, these drug-using constituents apparently don't hold as much value as those who want to develop property or demand heavier-handed policing. There are unlimited dollars and bill-signing events for those individuals, all while those who use drugs have been left with stagnant drug policy and an ever-changing drug supply that threatens their lives.

The foundation of the harm reduction movement is the belief that these people hold equal value, deserve equal compassion and should be afforded equal rights. That's why we fight for overdose prevention centers, decriminalization and more funding to serve our comrades who use drugs.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution funds, spread out over 15 years and totaling less than the police department's annual budget, will not solve this issue. Ambitious policies that combat the War on Drugs and the punishment bureaucracy are the only true solution.

So, if the city truly wants to act in drug users' best interests, how far are those in power willing to go to prove it?

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "Mobtown Redux to partner with Scalawag Magazine in 2026"

After three years of independent and uncompromising harm reduction journalism, Mobtown Redux will have a new comrade in the fight against the War on Drugs in Baltimore.

Starting in January, Mobtown Redux and Scalawag, an abolitionist magazine covering oppressed communities in the South, will co-publish the weekly Redux Newsletter. Through this partnership, the publications aim to bolster Mobtown Redux's coverage of addiction, drug policy and the harm reduction movement in Baltimore — all while paving the way for a new wave of reporting that advocates for drug users in the South and beyond.

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 777 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2024, a 25.5% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data.

In the 12-month period ending in November, Baltimore saw 554 deaths, a death rate of 94.6 per 100,000 people. Statewide, there were 1,262 deaths, a death rate of 20.4 per 100,000 people.

The data shows that fatal overdoses continue to trend downward after years of climbing, though poor Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore continue to suffer the most.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Filter: "Whether DOJ Reschedules Marijuana 'Remains to Be Seen,' Per CRS Report"

In the days since President Donald Trump signed an executive order on marijuana rescheduling earlier in December, there’s been some misreporting that the deal is officially done. But as congressional researchers note in a new report, the reclassification must still be finalized—and there’s a chance the Justice Department could opt to start the process all over again, or even not complete it at all.

What the president did through executive action was direct the attorney general to expeditiously complete the process of moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, in accordance with a proposed rule initiated under the Biden administration. Short of that sign-off, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug.

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Ahead of a brutally cold winter, Baltimoreans honor unhoused residents who have died as advocates worry about city’s preparedness for the season

Logan Hullinger — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 19:40:58 GMT

Dozens of people gathered in McKeldin Square on December 18 to honor more than 80 unhoused Baltimoreans who have died this year ahead of a brutally cold winter that’s expected to worsen the death toll.

The city’s unhoused residents are facing a lack of shelter beds and freezing temperatures, a potentially lethal combination for a vulnerable population that often opts for the streets because of safety concerns at the facilities. Winter shelters have already been open for most of the last month under the Mayor's Office of Homeless Services “Code Purple” directive, but, despite the risks of hypothermia, frostbite, and death, the city has yet to finalize shelter plans to bolster its winter bed capacity.

Those who advocate for their unhoused neighbors have sounded the alarm about both the quality of shelters and the city’s apparent failure to prepare for the winter.

“They are behind, and they are waiting until winter comes to do something about it,” said Mark Council, lead organizer for Housing Our Neighbors, a nonprofit advocating for the rights of unsheltered Baltimoreans.

“At this time, it’s too late for them to do anything about it. They should have had something already; winter is going to come regardless. What’s sad about it is that people are going to refuse to come into a shelter or hotel because they feel as though it’s safer outside in these cold elements. We know that them being out here with the cold will kill them.”

With homelessness on the rise, there are just 562 shelter beds in the city. Rather than expanding permanent shelter spaces in response, the city is mulling a 90-day shelter stay policy to restrict the amount of time someone can be in a shelter — a proposal that has been met with fierce backlash among activists.

When temperatures drop, there are 300 additional winter shelter beds, though advocates have argued they should always remain open. Regardless, the agency’s data shows that the demand vastly outnumbers the supply. Last year, for example, 20,000 people called the shelter hotline for help, and city officials have confirmed that people had to be turned away.

The inaccessibility of quality care during times of need has been a resounding theme among those who have had to live on the streets or in shelters. At the Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day on December 18, advocates read the names of people confirmed to have died in Baltimore this year by Health Care for the Homeless, one by one. Each name was an individual who died a preventable death, and although there was a sense of hope that the system could change, the stories of loss woven into attendees’ remarks painted a grim picture of the state of homelessness in Baltimore.

Although the dangers of extreme temperatures for the unsheltered residents are well-documented, it’s unclear just how many have died due to the cold in recent years. Like the city's attempts to gauge the total number of unhoused individuals in Baltimore, the death toll cited by advocates at the memorial service is likely an undercount.

City and state agencies would not provide more granular data about deaths among the unhoused population. Baltimore Beat is awaiting a response to a public records request.

Standing in front of cutouts of homes bearing the names of those who died, Deirdre Hoey, a behavioral health therapist at Health Care for the Homeless, emphasized the need for them to be honored.

“There are names of people on this list that are truly loved, and sometimes we’re the only ones who get to know them,” Hoey said. “A lot of people on this list were denied memorials, funerals, and other ways to remember them.”

Even without exact numbers, the impact of policy failures and extreme temperatures on the unhoused population is clear — and that comes amid an assault on housing and homelessness policies at both the federal and local levels.

A federal judge on December 19 issued a preliminary injunction blocking the federal government’s plan to drastically limit the amount of grant funds that can be spent on permanent housing, which officials have said will decimate affordable housing programs in their communities.

The federal government planned to cap the amount of funding that jurisdictions can use for permanent housing at 30% of total funding, which would kick at least 700 Baltimoreans out of subsidized housing. President Donald Trump had already signed an executive order in July to criminalize homelessness, ramp up forced institutionalization of those with mental illnesses and substance use disorders, and defund life-saving harm reduction programs.

The judge’s decision was in response to a lawsuit from 20 states, including Maryland, and numerous nonprofits. They sued the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, alleging it was illegally stripping away aid from tens of thousands of unhoused Americans.

“We know that permanent housing, and only permanent housing, is the solution to homelessness,” said Antonia Fasanelli, executive director of the National Homelessness Law Center, who spoke at the vigil and serves as co-counsel in the case against the Trump administration. “It’s not forced drug treatment, not involuntary mental health commitment, and defunding affordable housing is certainly a step in the wrong direction.”

The parties who sued the federal government over the anticipated homeless policy changes scored a temporary victory. However, even without federal interference, Baltimore officials have sparred over what must be done to protect the city’s unhoused population.

That came to a head at a Baltimore City Council Housing and Economic Development Committee hearing in November, when Councilman James Torrence grilled the city’s homeless services office for more than two hours over their handling of shelters ahead of the winter.

“I care about the people who have to sleep on the streets,” Torrence said. “I don’t want them to freeze and die.”

Torrence repeatedly cited a survey of 74 current and former shelter residents conducted by Housing Our Neighbors during the hearing. It showed that residents at the city’s homeless shelters are often unaware of the process to file grievances about safety, cleanliness, and other matters.

💊

Mobtown Redux now accepts donations. For the other kind of tips, contact me securely at lhullinger@mobtownredux.news or on Signal at loganhullinger.24.

Residents rate the conditions of shelters as 5.1 out of 10 on average. Shelter residents faced insect infestations; brown-colored water coming from showers, toilets and faucets; expired or moldy food; and a lack of wheelchair accessibility, the survey found.

The councilman also claimed he’d been told that the city didn’t begin looking for additional winter overflow shelters until September, which Ernestina Simmons, director of the homeless services office, denied.

“Our goal is to ensure that no Baltimore City resident in need, including people experiencing homelessness, is left without a warm place to sleep on Baltimore’s coldest nights. We are currently working with other city agencies to identify a permanent winter shelter overflow location to our portfolio,” agency spokesperson Jessica Dortch said on November 26.

As the city looks to expand access to winter shelters, it’s operating with just eight outreach workers as more than 2,000 people in Baltimore are experiencing homelessness on any given night, 70% of whom are Black, according to the city’s 2025 Point-in-Time Count.

That marks a 26.5% increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness over the year prior.

“We have recorded 26 deaths last winter, and that terrifies me,” said Christina Flowers, founder of Belvedere Real Care Providers and a local advocate for people experiencing homelessness.

“It’s like we’re sitting back and waiting for premeditated deaths. We have to be focusing and making sure we are securing the type of triaging and assessment that these individuals need, so that they’re not only coming into the shelter but also getting their trauma and mental health needs met.”

Those needs are also under threat.

The prevalence of substance use disorder among unhoused individuals has skyrocketed in the last few years, according to the city’s Point-in-Time Count.

Compared to 23% of people reporting having substance use disorder two years ago, a whopping 77% reported being addicted to a substance this year. Moreover, 67% of unsheltered residents also reported having a “serious” mental illness.

City officials have said that, in response to the rise in substance use issues and recommendations from an independent consultant, the agency is now working to implement on-site behavioral health and substance use services. But not only are they struggling with a lack of capacity, but the city as a whole is losing some critical programs that benefit the population.

On November 14, the Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition announced it would be shuttering due to funding issues. As a result, coalition programs like The NEST, a 10-bed shelter for unhoused youth, and Dee’s Place, an addiction recovery center, will also cease operations.

Dee’s Place closed on December 12, and The NEST will close on January 30, though the organization is looking for other entities to “continue the mission,” Board Chair Brandon Lockett said.

Shortly after the organization announced its closure, Mayor Brandon Scott unveiled a plan on December 4 for the Baltimore City Department of Social Services to help relocate youth and young families at risk of homelessness.

Under the plan, the agency will identify older youth in foster care and other out-of-home care programs to live at the 44-unit Restoration Gardens 1, a housing complex for previously homeless teenagers and at-risk youth in Park Circle. The agency will also identify young families at risk of homelessness to live in the YMCA of Central Maryland’s Geraldine Young Family Life Center in Upton, which has 12 units.

Health Care for the Homeless has also unveiled plans for a 42-unit affordable housing development in downtown Baltimore, with most units reserved for people earning at or below 30% of the city’s median income. The complex, called Sojourner Place at Park, is slated to open to residents in early 2027.

The complex is the third project between the nonprofit and Episcopal Housing Corporation, with Sojourner Place locations also in Argyle and Oliver. Those three projects alone provide permanent housing for hundreds of low-income residents, including those who were formerly unhoused.

“The opposite of homelessness, as we know, is home,” said Kevin Lindamood, executive director of Health Care for the Homeless, at the December 18 vigil. “We commit to a future where there will be no need for memorial services like this one because we’ve brought everyone in and left nobody out.”

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This article was published in partnership with the Baltimore Beat, a Black-led, Black-controlled nonprofit newspaper and media outlet. Click here to support them.

Mobtown Redux to partner with Scalawag Magazine in 2026

Logan Hullinger — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 13:29:02 GMT

After three years of independent and uncompromising harm reduction journalism, Mobtown Redux will have a new comrade in the fight against the War on Drugs in Baltimore.

Starting in January, Mobtown Redux and Scalawag, an abolitionist magazine covering oppressed communities in the South, will co-publish the weekly Redux Newsletter. Through this partnership, the publications aim to bolster Mobtown Redux's coverage of addiction, drug policy and the harm reduction movement in Baltimore — all while paving the way for a new wave of reporting that advocates for drug users in the South and beyond.

Have no fear: The hard-hitting journalism that readers have come to expect isn't going anywhere.

Mobtown Redux will continue to publish regularly scheduled newsletters that uplift drug users and hold to account those in power who threaten their livelihoods. This website will also still house my work for publications such as the Baltimore Beat and Filter.

However, with Scalawag's support, readers can expect higher quality journalism and an opportunity to bring even more people into the harm reduction movement. Scalawag will also publish the newsletter on its website, making this a massive opportunity to platform reporting that puts the rights of drug users first.

More details will come next month. But first, some things must be said:

I first began writing about drugs in Baltimore nearly three years ago, drawing on lived experience with drug use and a passion for human rights to inform my writing. Over time, Mobtown Redux has evolved, transitioning from a small passion project to a known voice in Baltimore.

What once was an online news publication started by a 27-year-old outsider straight out of a rehab facility has now become a fierce, advocacy-based newsletter that refuses to pull punches.

Over time, I've found my voice. And as evidenced by this partnership, there's a place for that in the current media ecosystem. In Baltimore or elsewhere in the nation, the media scene is plagued with publications run by affluent, white liberals who choose to platform both sides instead of fighting for what's right.

In my case, what's right is compassion and autonomy for drug users, a stigmatized population that must be afforded the same rights as any other group of people. That voice has become more powerful this year, and those in power have taken notice.

This partnership not only marks a seminal moment in Mobtown Redux's journey, but it also demonstrates that people truly care about those who use drugs. Scalawag has embodied radical, liberation-focused journalism in the South for years, and its willingness to platform journalism hellbent on ending the drug war illustrates a strong set of shared values that aim to free drug users of the constraints of oppression and stigma.

This upcoming year promises to be a significant one for Mobtown Redux, and I'm eternally grateful for those who have supported my work over the years. Without your support, independent harm reduction journalism would not exist in Charm City.

Cheers to 2026, and remember: No More Drug War.

Sincerely,

Logan Hullinger

Want to support Scalawag and Mobtown Redux? Check out your options below:

As a Scalawag supporter, you’ll support our nonprofit journalism and storytelling online and in-person—and you’ll get some special perks, too.

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Mobtown Redux now accepts donations. For the other kind of tips, contact me securely at lhullinger@mobtownredux.news or on Signal at loganhullinger.24.

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "A Baltimore harm reductionist's Christmas wishlist"

Christmas is almost here, and my only wish is for drug policy reform. Well, there are actually quite a few things — but they are all related to advancing the harm reduction movement and fighting for human rights in Baltimore.

From overdose prevention centers to simply a semblance of compassion from public officials, harm reductionists have a lot to ask for. Unfortunately, all these things require political will from our status quo-loving elected officials, so these may be some unrealistic requests. It is, however, the season of giving. And I'm kindly demanding that they hand over the goods. Or else.

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 777 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2024, a 25.5% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data.

In the 12-month period ending in October, Baltimore saw 560 deaths, a death rate of 95.2 per 100,000 people. Statewide, there were 1,290 deaths, a death rate of 20.9 per 100,000 people.

The data shows that fatal overdoses continue to trend downward after years of climbing, though poor Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore continue to suffer the most.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Filter: "Oklahoma Bill Would Require EMS to Call the Cops After Reversing an OD"

Oklahoma legislators will consider a proposal requiring first responders to notify law enforcement if they reverse an overdose. House Bill 2941 was introduced by Representative Steve Bashore (R) on December 15 and is prefiled for discussion on February 2, 2026. If enacted, it would take effect November 1, 2026. In most states such a proposal would appear to contravene “Good Samaritan” protections for overdose survivors, but Oklahoma doesn’t have any.

“When any first responder … responds to an incident in which the first responder reasonably believes a person is experiencing or has experienced a drug overdose, the first responder shall contact local law enforcement as soon as practicable after attending to the medical needs of the person,” the bill states. “The obligation to contact law enforcement does not require delay in providing medically necessary emergency care.”

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A Baltimore harm reductionist's Christmas wishlist

Logan Hullinger — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 14:32:40 GMT

Here's my Christmas list as a Baltimore harm reductionist:

Overdose prevention centers (local level)

Harm reduction advocates recently announced that legislation to legalize OPCs will not be introduced this upcoming legislative session in Annapolis. Given that it's an election year and disgraced Sen. Bill Ferguson will once again preside over the Senate, there's a slim chance that a statewide push for OPCs would materialize. Even in more normal times, the life-saving bills have repeatedly died in committee in previous sessions.

In light of this, it is left up to Mayor Brandon Scott to unilaterally permit sites to open in Baltimore. It's been done in New York City, and it can be done here. However, the mayor has balked at supporting city-sanctioned sites, and Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Taylor has stated the city would not pursue city-sanctioned facilities as long as President Donald Trump is in office. As it now stands, proposals to allow individuals to use drugs under medical supervision — which has been proven to prevent fatal overdoses — are dead in the water.

The cowardice demonstrated by local officials in the face of a fascist is both disappointing and disgusting. These are not the times to bend the knee, and city leaders must act fast to save the lives of people who use drugs in Baltimore.

Paraphernalia decriminalization (state level)

Like OPC legislation, bills to decriminalize paraphernalia in Maryland have failed in the past. But their journey has been different in one key way — it cleared both chambers in 2021 before being vetoed by former Gov. Larry Hogan. Advocates have noted that there was sufficient support to override it, but the matter never came to a vote because of Ferguson. They still plan to introduce it this legislative session.

Paraphernalia decriminalization would allow people to utilize syringe service programs without fear that they could be arrested for possessing the supplies they receive, and history has shown us that there's a path toward successful passage. This is legislation that's needed to ensure that drug users can access much-needed harm reduction services, and it's also a step in the right direction in the fight against the lethal War on Drugs.

State legislators, especially those in leadership, must place stigma aside and do what's right to save lives.

The return of de facto decriminalization and the end of Ivan Bates' political career (local level)

De facto decriminalization of low-level crimes such as drug possession was something that Baltimore has already experimented with. Former Mayor Kurt Schmoke first came out in support of complete drug decriminalization in 1988 as part of an unsuccessful attempt to combat the War on Drugs, and

Former State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby then made waves after implementing de facto decriminalization in 2020 — a move lauded by public health advocates but reversed by Ivan Bates just a few years later. From the outset, Bates' time in office has been a paragon of Baltimore's reckless disregard for public health and human rights under the guise of "public safety."

The Baltimore Police Department's racist drug enforcement, particularly in low-income Black neighborhoods, has been emboldened during Bates' tenure. In addition to the failed citation docket and embarrassing spats with other elected officials, that's the record he's bringing to the table as he seeks reelection.

Commonsense drug policy reform must return to Baltimore, and Bates must be disposed of. In 2026, he must be primaried from the left if the city has any chance of fighting the drug war and mass incarceration.

The defunding of the Baltimore Police Department (local level)

In a staggering indictment of policing in Baltimore, a Baltimore Beat analysis of police data in June showed that nearly all people arrested and charged with drug crimes in Baltimore are Black — even though studies show that drug use rates among the Black population are similar to those of other races.

Meanwhile, Bates' policies have caused low-level drug charges to surge, and fatal overdose rates among older Black men have skyrocketed in the last decade. All of this has happened as the cops have continuously seen increases to their already exorbitant budget, in part to crack down harder on drug crimes.

Whether it's the Gun Trace Task Force, the War on Drugs or the killing of people experiencing mental health crises, the BPD has repeatedly shown that it's corrupt to its core. There is no hope for reforming the death squad, leaving only disinvestment — or outright abolition — as the only path forward.

Whether it's taking care of drug users, unhoused individuals or Baltimoreans in general, money is often cited as a reason more can't be done. Yet the cops' $614 million budget demonstrates that there's plenty of money to go around — if the city wants to serve the people rather than place them in jails, prisons or cemeteries.

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Mobtown Redux now accepts donations. For the other kind of tips, contact me securely at lhullinger@mobtownredux.news or on Signal at loganhullinger.24.

Increased drug supply testing (state and local level)

Data from the state's Rapid Analysis of Drugs program shows that some counties in Maryland are seeing drug supplies rife with adulterants such as medetomidine. Such drugs have gotten a lot of attention in Baltimore after the Penn North neighborhood experienced three mass overdose events in a span of a few months, even though they're fairly rare in the local drug supply.

At least that's according to the RAD program, which struggles with relatively small sample sizes. In the second quarter of this year, 378 samples were collected from 17 syringe service programs in 12 jurisdictions — and that's not nearly enough. At the state and local level, drug testing efforts must be expanded to better keep up with the ever-changing drug supply.

The contents of the drug supply are a matter of life and death for drug users. The sample sizes should be in the thousands, not hundreds.

In addition, Baltimore has seen a notable increase in drug-related arrests this year. These drug-war tactics cause drug users to shift to riskier suppliers, putting them at higher risk of fatal overdose. In response, drug testing efforts must be ramped up so we can better understand how prohibition is impacting drug users and shifting supply dynamics.

Shelter regulations and wrap-around services (state and local level)

The state of shelters in Baltimore is a nightmare, and currently, they are largely self-regulated. The six city-funded shelters, for example, rely on the nonprofit organizations running the facilities to work with an emergency services manager from the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services to keep tabs on the facilities.

Organizers and those who have experienced homelessness say that the city’s efforts to maintain shelters have failed, allowing dangerous and dehumanizing conditions to fester. Many unhoused individuals have opted for the streets instead.

With the General Assembly’s next legislative session beginning on January 14, organizers are rightfully gearing up to descend upon Annapolis to once again advocate for legislation that would require shelters to be licensed and subject to state regulations.

That legislation must be passed at the state level, but that's not enough. The city must also ensure that all shelters include wrap-around services. It's unconscionable to place someone in a shelter without also providing them with an extensive array of programming, including those related to substance use and mental health. Stability and permanent housing must be the goal, and anything less is unacceptable.

An end to encampment sweeps (local level)

City officials say they only sweep encampments when shelter beds are available, but activists and unhoused individuals have argued that isn't true. Encampment sweeps, which officials have laughably called "resolutions," often result in people losing everything they have to their name.

Destroying encampments is cruel, regardless of whether shelter beds are available. And given the widespread reports of poor shelter conditions, it's ludicrous to only give people the choice of either a bed in one of the facilities or the streets.

Unhoused Baltimoreans have found community in encampments — they provide some semblance of normalcy. But those communities are destroyed in the blink of an eye, and many are left with just the clothes on their backs. All encampment sweeps must be halted until more tenable housing options are available.

Just some fucking compassion, man (everyone)

Government officials and the media have consistently failed to show even a modicum of compassion for drug users and unhoused residents. That's abundantly clear from the increase in drug-war policing and how the media has parroted police talking points in the sensationalist pursuit of clicks.

Baltimore's apathy for vulnerable populations is not just manifested in policy failures, but also in mass deaths among its communities. Amid an unprecedented overdose crisis and extreme temperatures threatening the lives of those on the streets, it's incumbent on politicians and institutions to utilize their power for the well-being of all city residents.

It all comes down to compassion, and that's sorely missing in Baltimore. If everything on this list is ignored, I hope that this wish is granted at the very least. People's lives depend on it.

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "A case study on Baltimore media's racist portrayal of drug users"

Penn North is no longer just a neighborhood in Baltimore. It's become an obsession of local media and the most recent victim in a decades-long, racist fearmongering campaign in which low-income Black residents are now the modern-day "Negro Cocaine Fiends."

The Baltimore Sun is the most recent perpetrator of this destructive narrative. Under its new ownership, the publication's portrayal of Black youth as exuberant criminals and older Black men as lackadaisical drug addicts who threaten the white, working-class values of a once-great city has proliferated. So, it's unsurprising that a recent series advertised as a deep dive into the overdose crisis's impact on the neighborhood quickly devolved into rhetoric that has long fueled the War on Drugs.

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 777 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2024, a 25.5% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data.

In the 12-month period ending in October, Baltimore saw 560 deaths, a death rate of 95.2 per 100,000 people. Statewide, there were 1,290 deaths, a death rate of 20.9 per 100,000 people.

The data shows that fatal overdoses continue to trend downward after years of climbing, though poor Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore continue to suffer the most.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Harm Reduction International: Global State of Harm Reduction

This 2025 update presents a stark paradox: while more countries than ever recognise harm reduction in national policy, the sudden withdrawal of US funding in January 2025 has created the most severe threat to global harm reduction services in decades. Services are closing, staff are being lost, and decades of public health progress are at risk.

Yet amid this crisis, extraordinary stories of community resilience have emerged.

Click here to read the full report.

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A case study on Baltimore media's racist portrayal of drug users

Logan Hullinger — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 13:47:27 GMT

"The three men, all Black, were skeptical when The Sun reporter identified himself. One of the men — not Suge — invaded this reporter’s personal space as his eyes twitched rapidly," according to one of the articles.

"On the advice of a police officer, The Sun offered a pack of Newport menthol cigarettes to break the tension and as barter for information. Suge accepted the cigarettes, then suggested taking a walk out of the alley to North Avenue. As he walked, Suge lit up a cigarette."

The series, full of typical drug-war tropes, could easily be a satirical representation of the absurd portrayal of Black drug users. But local outlets seem to revel in depicting drug users as subhuman beings, all slaves to the poisonous substances they ingest.

This is the reality of Baltimore's media ecosystem:

A reporter, working for a newspaper owned by a conservative, white millionaire, finds himself in a low-income, majority-Black neighborhood. Surrounded by the same people the publication demonizes, he feels threatened by a Black man. Much to his dismay, there are two more who could snap at any second. Luckily, he's able to placate the man with menthol cigarettes on the counsel of a cop — a member of a historically corrupt and racist police force that's known to target Black drug users.

There are not enough adjectives in the English language to sufficiently condemn this racist filth, though "reprehensible" and "deplorable" are a decent start.

The series builds upon media outlets' ongoing exploitation of drug users, particularly those in Penn North, which has seen three mass overdose events in recent months and police crackdowns as recently as yesterday. Much of the media has spewed stigmatizing language and outright racist portrayals of residents while claiming to investigate the causes of the city's overdose crisis.

But no answers are uncovered. At the end of the day, Penn North is ripe for exploitation; the area has one of the highest fatal overdose rates in the city, many of its residents live in poverty and it's predominantly Black.

The outlets know this, which is why another article in The Sun's series goes out of its way to describe how "a few middle-aged Black men roam around on foot." There is no benefit to mentioning the men's races, but it lays the foundation for a more sinister narrative.

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Mobtown Redux now accepts donations. For the other kind of tips, contact me securely at lhullinger@mobtownredux.news or on Signal at loganhullinger.24.

Penn North, including the traumatic overdose events it has experienced, gives organizations such as The Sun an opportunity to fuel the flames of the racist drug war. It's not about journalism's altruistic fight for the truth — it's an opportunity to weaponize systemic racism while ignoring crucial context like widespread disinvestment and generational trauma, all in the name of feeding an insatiable death campaign.

The solution to these problems, according to the media and its sources, is more cops. More punitive drug laws. More crowded jails and prisons. And, ultimately, more people in graves.

As mentioned in my analysis of local media coverage on drugs for The Objective, "Experts say the current media ecosystem has shifted away from the days of the New York Times’ infamous 'Negro Cocaine ‘Fiends’ Are a Southern Menace' article from 1914. But, they add, for some, the media has simply couched its drug-war rhetoric in euphemisms while parroting police talking points."

The New York Times article is perhaps the best-known piece of racist, anti-drug propaganda in U.S. history. It offers a ludicrous narrative about Black men who are crazed and immune to bullets because of cocaine, a drug that proliferated following the prohibition of alcohol.

The author also speaks of "stories of cocaine orgies and 'sniffing parties' followed by wholesale murders." White women would face the brunt of violence, both sexual and deadly, according to journalists, police and politicians at the time.

Ironically, that story did seem to get one thing right: The Iron Law of Prohibition. Outlaw a drug or ramp up enforcement, and a more lethal and unpredictable supply will follow.

This type of coverage has severe implications. It impacts public policy, public health and the public perception of those who use drugs, with the result often detrimental to those most affected — those who use drugs.

But more than a century later, journalism in Baltimore and beyond still speaks of drug-induced chaos among the Black population. It's just worded more carefully.

After the July overdose event, FOX45, whose owner bought The Baltimore Sun last year, cited anonymous police sources and community members in its baseless claims that a new drug called “New Jack City," which allegedly contained antifreeze, was responsible for the chaotic event. That reporting was the result of white-led media organizations parachuting into the area to cover an incident in a Black community they had long ignored.

Now, after months of reflection, The Sun provides an account of a reporter facing a terrifying threat: A Black man who may or may not be on drugs "invaded this reporter’s personal space as his eyes twitched rapidly."

The crazed Black man, striking a strong resemblance to the individuals whom The New York Times had depicted in 1914, strikes again.

Yet contrary to what the media has fed the public, the insanity of these events is not found within the mind of an intoxicated Black man.

The true insanity is that the post-industrial city has failed to redress the destruction caused by forced segregation, redlining, job loss and a notoriously brutal and racist police force, all of which have left the residents of Penn North and other areas with such poor material conditions and prospects for upward mobility that they have been left to rot.

Politicians are treating these issues as if they are part of a distant past, offering only lip service or piecemeal reforms as the police crack down and perpetuate the lethal cycle of the drug war.

Simultaneously, the madness is compounded by the fact that the media industry has taken advantage of those residents, sensationalizing mass overdoses and holding onto those headlines for dear life in the pursuit of clicks.

To hell with the policies that got us here and why their impacts fester; providing that context would take too much work and expose the rotten core around which white institutions are cloaked.

The "drug problem" is a vehicle through which racialized social control is achieved. Inaction among public officials is the vehicle through which the root causes of the overdose crisis are allowed to fester. And the media industry is often a vehicle through which all of this is normalized.

None of this is new; it's all part of the more than century-long drug war playbook. The residents of Penn North — and drug users throughout Baltimore — deserve infinitely better.

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "Ivan Bates, a drama-loving drug warrior, must be primaried from the left in 2026"

When State's Attorney Ivan Bates took office nearly three years ago, he inherited a historic opportunity. Drug-related arrests had plummeted over the past decade, making it seem as though the War on Drugs in Baltimore was losing steam.

Then, in a move that foreshadowed much of his tenure, he fumbled it. Bates scrapped his predecessor's de facto decriminalization policy, cementing himself as Baltimore's top drug warrior and emboldening the city's notoriously corrupt police force to crack down harder. In his first year in office alone, total drug arrests resulting in charges increased by 91%. Misdemeanor drug charges, which were the subject of the de facto decriminalization policy, increased nearly 20-fold.

Much to the delight of cops and prisons, the numbers have continued to rise since, and more than 90% of those arrested are Black.

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 777 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2024, a 25.5% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data.

In the 12-month period ending in October, Baltimore saw 560 deaths, a death rate of 95.2 per 100,000 people. Statewide, there were 1,290 deaths, a death rate of 20.9 per 100,000 people.

The data shows that fatal overdoses continue to trend downward after years of climbing, though poor Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore continue to suffer the most.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Filter: "Drug Policy Reform Movement Renews Fight Against Authoritarianism"

Despite the cold, the Drug Policy Alliance’s biennial Reform conference vibrated with excitement as approximately 1,800 people filed into the Detroit venue November 12. The majority—70 percent—were attending for the first time, with 15 percent from the city itself and many from countries around the world, all eager to engage and strategize on how to end the drug war.

The local activists, community members and grassroots organizations that pushed for the international event to come to Detroit would see it as a reflection of their city: full of grit, resilience and fight.

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Ivan Bates, a drama-loving drug warrior, must be primaried from the left in 2026

Logan Hullinger — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 13:16:46 GMT

Much to the delight of cops and prisons, the numbers have continued to rise since, and more than 90% of those arrested are Black.

“Residents have clamored for a return to accountability,” Bates said upon taking office in 2023. “We don’t have to take a hands-off approach when it comes to quality-of-life crimes.”

Yet Bates' tenure has been a paragon of Baltimore's reckless disregard for public health and human rights under the guise of "public safety." The state's attorney has overseen the decimation of quality of life for many of the city's most vulnerable — all to uphold the image of being "hard on crime."

That's the record he's bringing to the table as he likely seeks re-election.

Although Bates hasn't formally filed to run in 2026, he teased that he'd give it another go during an interview on WBAL News Radio late last month. More recently, he's posted campaign ads and touted drug busts on his Instagram account.

Meanwhile, he's reveled in public spats with Mayor Brandon Scott and is now embroiled in yet another dispute. Earlier this week, he announced he would no longer cooperate with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement because of a "cloak of secrecy" around the agency that Scott has made a cornerstone of his anti-violence efforts.

Among other things, MONSE oversees programs like the Group Violence Reduction Initiative, or GVRS, and Safe Streets.

There is no doubt that GVRS is flawed. For years, it has served as a vehicle for drug-war policing under the guise of public safety, with the number of arrests far outnumbering the number of those "helped" by the program. Officials have often credited it as a prominent driver for the reduction of violent crime in Baltimore, even though such crime has dropped significantly nationwide.

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Mobtown Redux now accepts donations. For the other kind of tips, contact me securely at lhullinger@mobtownredux.news or on Signal at loganhullinger.24.

Unlike GVRS, Safe Streets aims to get cops out of the picture. Studies have shown it to be effective, with it involving a form of community-based violence intervention instead of typical heavy-handed policing. The lack of law enforcement involvement, though, has made the crackdown-hungry incumbent livid.

The only thing Bates has to his name is the citation docket, a program that's failed to make any meaningful difference in how the city handles low-level crimes.

At the end of the day, his ongoing beef with the mayor has nothing to do with public safety, transparency or justice. It's about the incalcitrant incumbent's seemingly insatiable desire to take credit for progress and make headlines through back-and-forths with other elected officials. And he's been effective, with every news outlet in Baltimore writing numerous stories about a couple of letters the pen pals sent each other over the past week.

That should not distract from the fact that, in Bates' first three years in office, he's demonstrated he has no appetite for anything but crackdowns and punitive policies. He's licked the boots of the city's police force while sparring with the mayor over any alternatives to the status quo, illustrating his disillusionment with criminal justice reform.

His reckless disregard for human rights, criminal justice reform and the law is nothing new.

In a Nov. 10 Facebook post about local law enforcement mulling alternative ways to "clear corners, which was found to be racist and unconstitutional nearly a decade ago, here's what he had to say:

"Our residents are tired of having to come outside their doors to navigate through a crowded block of individuals selling drugs on street corners which many don’t even live," Bates wrote. "I believe it is reasonable to ask that anyone convicted of these crimes, who do not live in this area, are prohibited from that area for the term of their probation to ensure a better quality of life for the law abiding citizens of these communities."

So, a self-described man of law wants to tweak a racist and unconstitutional practice all in the name of "quality of life." He wants to restrict the rights of individuals — even those who haven't been convicted — to uphold his version of "justice."

But "justice" and "quality of life" are terms Bates doesn't understand. Justice isn't encouraging crackdowns and infringing on people's rights. And it's not enhancing quality of life if the practices involve throwing people in jails and prisons amid ongoing mass incarceration.

To say Bates, whose office has repeatedly dodged questions about his role in the drug war, is unfit for a second term is an understatement.

With an unscrupulous police force running roughshod in the city and fanning the flames of the drug war, a primary challenger from the left is required to bring some semblance of sanity back to the city's criminal justice system. It needs what many would hesitantly call a "progressive prosecutor."

The term is problematic because no individual tasked with upholding the punishment bureaucracy is a true progressive. But as former State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby demonstrated, a top prosecutor can push back against the worst that the bureaucracy has to offer — things Bates happily upholds.

There was backlash against reform-minded prosecutors over public perceptions of crime during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it's imperative that cities like Baltimore revisit that movement.

Mosby was far from perfect. She failed to secure convictions in the cases against officers who murdered Freddie Gray and was hellbent on convicting Keith Davis Jr., an innocent man. She also may or may not have committed some mortgage fraud.

She was, however, relatively solid on drug policy. Though police still targeted Black Baltimoreans, she halted the prosecution of low-level crimes and disincentivized police from pursuing their drug-war tactics. She wasn't perfect, but she showed that prosecutors can, in fact, fight back.

Simply primarying Bates from the left isn't going to end that war, nor is it going to bring immediate reforms to the deeply flawed "justice" system. But as Mosby's performance at the polls showed, there is an appetite to move away from the status quo.

It's December, and next year's elections aren't far away. There's no time to waste in finding someone — and organizing behind someone — who can make Bates a one-term state's attorney.

Read the last Redux Newsletter: "You don't have to be sober for the holidays — but use safely"

With America's beloved celebration of colonialism in the rearview mirror and Christmas right around the corner, the holiday season is in full swing. And these can be difficult times for both former and active drug users.

When I first launched Mobtown Redux, I published a piece titled "Sober for the holidays," which detailed how the holiday season can be a trying time for those of us in abstinence-based recovery. Holiday celebrations are full of temptations, whether it be drugs or alcohol, and the season can also bring about a resurgence of trauma from times past. For many, these serve as triggers that create the perfect storm for a relapse.

That article is no longer online, but I stand by my point. On the other hand, as I've become more ingrained in the harm reduction movement, it's become evident that the article failed to acknowledge that sobriety isn't the only path forward for those who use substances — nor should it be.

Check out Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data Dashboard here.

Mobtown Redux's Overdose Data has been updated with the latest local, state and national data

There were 777 overdose deaths in Baltimore in 2024, a 25.5% decrease from the year prior, according to preliminary data.

In the 12-month period ending in October, Baltimore saw 560 deaths, a death rate of 95.2 per 100,000 people. Statewide, there were 1,290 deaths, a death rate of 20.9 per 100,000 people.

The data shows that fatal overdoses continue to trend downward after years of climbing, though poor Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore continue to suffer the most.

Click here to learn more about harm reduction resources in the Baltimore area.

Filter: "Baltimore Drug Users Want Safe Supply, Know How It Should Look"

People who use drugs in Baltimore, overwhelmingly support prescribed safe supply programs, according to new research. Published in the International Journal of Drug Policy in October, the study highlighted how the most vulnerable respondents were the most supportive of the idea—and dug into the specifics of what people want.

Researchers based in Baltimore and Canada surveyed 300 city residents who had injected drugs in the past year, most of whom continued to do so. They found that 87 percent would support programs providing access to regulated drugs, in order to protect participants from the adulterated street supply.