The Worcester County Commissioners have approved an agreement to provide naloxone to jail inmates upon their release.
The Worcester County Jail.
File photo
By Steve Green, Executive Editor
An agreement has been made to provide some county inmates with naloxone upon their release.
Before the Worcester County Commissioners this week was a request to create a Memorandum of Understanding between the county and the Worcester County Health Department allowing for the Worcester County Jail to be provided naloxone by the health department to disburse to “at-risk inmates” upon their release.
The commissioners unanimously approved (with Commissioner Joe Mitrecic absent) the matter without discussion at the June 18 meeting as part of its consent agenda. The request allows the county to meet the upcoming deadline outlined in the STOP Act of 2022 (Statewide Targeted Overdose Response).
In his letter included in the county meeting packet, Worcester County Jail Warden Timothy Mulligan said, “The STOP Act of 2022 requires certain providers to offer naloxone to people at risk of witnessing or experiencing an overdose.”
The Maryland General Assembly approved the STOP Act of 2022. The fiscal and policy note of the bill read, “By June 30, 2024, a community services program that provides specified services, a State correctional facility, a local correctional facility, and the Division of Parole and Probation must likewise have a protocol to offer FDA-approved opioid overdose reversal drugs, free of charge, to individuals with an opioid use disorder (OUD) or who are at risk of experiencing a drug overdose when the individual receives services or is released from a facility (as appropriate). However, these entities may only provide the reversal drugs if MDH provides them with the specified drugs.”