Mayor O'Malley, City Officials Announce New Initiative to Combat Addiction

BALTIMORE, MD - Mayor Martin O'Malley today joined Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein to announce a new initiative that will pay for any practicing and eligible physician in Baltimore City to receive the required training to prescribe buprenorphine, a highly effective office-based treatment for addiction to heroin and other opiates.

The initiative, approved by the city's Board of Estimates today, is a first-ever collaboration between local government, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and Clinical Tools, Inc. It will allow city physicians to call and receive free online training, a key step towards prescribing buprenorphine to up to 30 patients each.

"This new initiative will ultimately open the doors to drug treatment, helping save the lives of thousands of our neighbors," said Mayor O'Malley. "As more physicians complete the training, even more citizens will be able to quickly secure critical long-term drug treatment services."

"I urge all primary care doctors and psychiatrists working in the city to learn to prescribe this effective treatment for the lethal illness of opiate addiction," said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, Commissioner of Health. "The training is free, it's online, and it will help you save lives."

Baltimore's effort is drawing support from national leaders in substance abuse treatment.

"Buprenorphine represents a health services delivery innovation for opiate addicted individuals because it can be administered in the privacy of a doctor's office," said Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. "Baltimore's commitment to widespread availability of physician training in treatment protocols will not only increase accessibility to buprenophrine, it is also likely to prompt earlier attempts to obtain treatment."

"Baltimore's new initiative to increase the number of physicians able to prescribe buprenorphine is exciting," said Judith Martin, M.D., co-chair of the Buprenorphine Training Group for the American Society of Addiction Medicine and an addiction medicine specialist in California. "Buprenorphine allows treatment for addiction to be integrated with other medical care such as primary health care and mental health services."

The Executive Vice President of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, Eileen McGrath, stated, "We see this as a model of best practice that can efficiently and cost-effectively be replicated with Health Departments across the country to significantly address existing treatment gaps."

The training initiative is one part of a citywide effort on buprenorphine that also includes a significant investment by Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, Inc. to ready opiate-addicted patients for buprenorphine treatment in the medical system. The goal is for buprenorphine treatment to add to existing drug treatment services in the city.

"Our public funding for substance abuse supports about eight thousand people in drug treatment each day," stated Adam Brickner, President of Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, Inc. "As more doctors in the medical system prescribe buprenorphine, we can expand access to effective treatment and help more city residents into recovery every day."

Additional information about the buprenorphine training initiative, including instructions for physicians, is online at http://www.baltimorehealth.org/buprenorphine

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