Opioid Crisis Growing in Montgomery County, Police Say

The opioid crisis in Montgomery County is growing, police told the County Council’s Public Safety Committee on Monday.

Nonfatal overdoses increased 175 percent from 2015 to 2016, and fatal overdoses increased more than 50 percent, according to police statistics.

Nonfatal overdoses had been up 90 percent year-to-date over last year at one point in 2017, said Capt. Paul Liquorie, of the county police’s Special Investigations Division. Since then, the year-to-date figure is now only 42 percent, he said.

Police are hypothesizing that a lot of that may be attributed to addicts using naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, which can be used as emergency therapy in case of an opioid overdose.

Addicts, Liquorie said, “are taking care of their overdoses on their own, not involving public safety at all.”

Hear Liquorie talk about other aspects of the opioid crisis in this MyMCMedia Extra:

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Douglas Tallman

About Douglas Tallman

Reporter with 35 years experience throughout Maryland. Reach me at dtallman@mymcmedia.org or via Twitter at @MCM-Doug

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