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Annapolis committee hears overdose trends, data gaps and push to treat some deaths as homicides
Summary
City staff and police presented 2023–24 overdose and Narcan data for Ward 8 and citywide, sparking committee questions about how overdoses are counted, where they are recorded and whether state law should make it easier to charge dealers for fatal overdoses.
The Public Safety Standing Committee of the City of Annapolis heard an Office of Emergency Management update March 2025 on overdose incidents, Narcan use and local response, with police and committee members pressing for clearer data and stronger avenues to hold dealers accountable.
Ms. Edna Jackson, a city council associate who stepped in for the Office of Emergency Management, summarized slides the committee was shown. “Narcan usage has been used in 60 percent of overdoses in Ward 8,” Jackson said while walking the committee through age, race and location breakdowns. She also said 80 percent of overdose victims in several recent years were Black/African American, and noted geographic clustering: “80 percent of them were along within 2 blocks of Madison Street.”
The presentation prompted committee members to question the way incidents are attributed. Alderman Gay asked why Ward 8 — “the second lowest African American population in the city” — showed one of the highest counts of African…
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