The White Van Prescribing Buprenorphine Outside a Baltimore Jail
The large white GMC van sits outside of the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center Jail on 300 E Eager Street, four days a week.
5 Oct 2019In 2017 the Behavioral Health Leadership Institute (BHLI), a Baltimore nonprofit, rented a truck. The large white GMC van sits outside of the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake CenterJail on 300 E Eager Street, four days a week.
The program, called Project Connections at Re-Entry (PCARE), takes a harm reduction approach—including prescribing buprenorphine.BHLI has been providing low-threshold addiction support in community centers for over 15 years. But two years ago the organization expanded its work to the doors of a jail. People are most vulnerable to overdose immediately after release, BHLI Director Deborah Agus told Filter.
An estimated two-thirds of people who are arrested in Maryland have drug-related problems. People who use opioids lose their tolerance if they’re forced into abstinence while incarcerated—as is typical. In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control noted evidence that 10 percent of people who die of overdose had been released from an institutional setting the prior month.
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