New public attitudes and policies

Editor’s note: This September, Audacious Ideas features a special month-long series in conjunction with National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. We’ve asked four individuals to share their ideas about addiction issues and the failed war on drugs. Pat Taylor is the first in our series. *** On Saturday September 12, over 70,000 Americans Rallied […]

City Council still has time to act

Over the last 11 years, the Open Society Institute-Baltimore has worked hand-in-hand with the city to build a comprehensive public drug addiction treatment system.  Since opening our doors in 1998, we knew that addiction treatment had to be one of our chief concerns if we were to help revitalize Baltimore and improve the health and […]

Stop defending the indefensible

Why is the Baltimore City Council more willing to spend taxpayer dollars to defend illegal laws that keep its citizens out of drug treatment than to invest in their recovery? They should stop defending a fifty-year old zoning law that shuts out the very health care services that so many citizens want and need. The […]

What are we waiting for?

A few weeks ago, OSI announced the Public Safety Compact, a new initiative that will help 250 prisoners overcome their addictions. This is certainly a welcome step forward, but what has taken everyone so long? Everyone knows that it’s stupid and unreasonable to do the same thing over and over and expect different results, yet […]

Big solutions

We enter the New Year with startling economic developments that threaten the security of residents throughout the country, including right here in Maryland:  soaring levels of unemployment, high rates of foreclosure, and dramatic losses in savings and investments.  The scope of the recession—and the time and reinvestment required to recover from it—oddly gives us the […]

Rethinking street prostitution

It seems as if age-old stereotypes and beliefs cloud our collective judgment when it come to dealing with street prostitution. Media coverage triggers our curiosity, pity, or disdain but does little to encourage a common sense approach to address a common “problem” – street prostitution in Baltimore. Over the years, I have talked to thousands […]

Give the public access to facts, not anecdote

The December three-part series in the Baltimore Sun on buprenorphine, the drug approved by the Federal Drug Administration in 2002 for heroin addiction, compromised clarity and balance by burying key facts about the drug’s use and effectiveness and further exaggerated its potential abuse.  Ostensibly motivated by a concern that potential abuse of buprenorphine was not […]

What if…? Consider the possibilities

A September 2005 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) “National Summit on Recovery,” held in Washington DC, focused on accomplishing three specific goals: • Developing new ideas to transform policy, services and systems toward a recovery-oriented paradigm. • Articulating guiding principles and measures of recovery that can be used […]

More drug treatment for those who need it

I’m a newcomer here, and certainly not an expert about Baltimore and the incidence of addiction to drugs and alcohol among its residents. I’m working on a national project to make drug treatment available to all who seek help. Baltimore’s drug treatment system actually serves as model for this project based on its progress made […]