Montgomery Community Media

Last year, 108 Montgomery County residents died from an opioid drug overdose. Families mourned loved ones and urged increased awareness about substance use disorder at an International Overdose Awareness Day Event and candlelight vigil Thursday evening in Rockville. Wendy and Henry Winter lost their son, Seth, on April 29, 2020 after an accidental fentanyl overdose. […]

Residents and families who have lost loved ones to substance use joined the sixth annual International Overdose Awareness Day Event and candlelight vigil at the Memorial Plaza in Rockville. S.O.U.L. (Surviving Our Ultimate Loss) partnered with Montgomery County to host the event Thursday evening. Maryland ranked fourth in the U.S. for overdose deaths last year, […]

A Gaithersburg man has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison on drug charges, selling the potent addictive chemical fentanyl that led to at least one death, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Greenbelt. Leandro Acevedo Lozada, 34, received 150 months in federal prison from U.S. District Judge Paul […]

A 33-year-old Gaithersburg man pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court on charges that he distributed the dangerous opioid fentanyl, according to a court statement. Leandro Acevedo Lozada and federal prosecutors have agreed that if the court accepts his plea agreement, Lozada will be sentenced to at least 10 years, but no more than 20 […]

A 42-year-old Takoma Park man received a 14½-year prison sentence Thursday for heroin and firearms possession charges in U.S. District Court, the Justice Department said Thursday. U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel also sentenced Stanley Eugene Green Jr. to supervised release after his imprisonment, according to the Justice Department statement. Green pleaded guilty to the […]

A 42-year-old Takoma Park man pleaded guilty to heroin and firearms charges in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel has scheduled the sentencing for April 5. According to the plea agreement, Stanley Eugene Green Jr. and others sold and possessed heroin […]

Montgomery County needs to start a conversation about the next steps in combating the opioid epidemic, a conversation that includes needle exchanges and “safe houses” where addicts can take drugs under supervision. The comment comes from the point person on the opioid epidemic in the county health department. Dr. Raymond Crowel said he knew the […]

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, […]

Officers from Takoma Park police, Montgomery County police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested a man and seized three handguns, $37,000, drug-packaging material as well as narcotics suspected to be heroin laced with fentanyl, a Takoma Park police statement said Thursday. The arrest was part of a multiagency undercover investigation that […]

Gov. Larry Hogan announced $50 million Wednesday to address the state’s opioid crisis as well as declaring a state of emergency that would activate the governor’s emergency management authority, creating more rapid coordination between state and local jurisdictions. Hogan also appointed his senior emergency management adviser, Clay Stamp, to lead the state’s coordinated effort to […]