Former Hagerstown Mayor Emily Keller returns from Ocean City at MACo as the Special Secretary of Overdose Response to candidly discuss her work in saving lives and getting addicted folks on the streets into safe programs with assistance without judgment. What is your role on the war on drugs and how can NARCAN save lives?
Maryland’s overdose response is centered on keeping people alive, reducing stigma, and expanding treatment options statewide.
Policy Shift
- Emily said Wes appointed her because of lived experience rather than a political or medical background.
- She said the state has moved away from shame and incarceration toward treating substance use disorder as a disease.
- She argued earlier approaches such as locking people up failed because jail does not address trauma, underlying causes, or readiness for treatment.
Care Model
- Emily described a meet-people-where-they-are model in which a peer support specialist with lived experience is often the first connection.
- She said the immediate need may be treatment, a shower, or a safe place off the street, depending on what the person is ready to accept.
- She contrasted that approach with how she tried to force hospital treatment for her friend Ashley’s heroin use before Ashley was ready.
Results Access
- Emily said recovery paths differ, including AA, medication for alcohol use disorder, therapy, and rehab, so Maryland needs options across the state.
- She reported overdose deaths are down 50 percent from the 2021 high and at their lowest level in 10 years, with non-fatal overdoses also decreasing.
- She urged broader use of Narcan, describing it as a nasal spray that reverses an opioid overdose by restoring breathing, and directed people to stopoverdose.maryland.gov for resources and opioid restitution fund spending data.
Open Questions
- How does Maryland ensure treatment and recovery options are available statewide for people who do not fit a single model such as AA?
- How effectively are counties and cities using opioid restitution fund dollars, and what outcomes should residents expect from that spending?
- Provide the radio host with a short list of local organizations and community leaders in Hagerstown who could participate in charity activities planned around the upcoming Super Bowl trip.
- Once the organization names are received, contact those groups and other relevant contacts to plan and schedule charity activities associated with the planned Super Bowl–week appearance in Ocean City. (@Nestor Aparicio)
Emily’s Role
- Nestor introduced Emily Keller as Maryland’s special secretary of overdose response and former mayor of Hagerstown.
- Emily said her appointment under Wes reflected her lived experience with addiction in her community and among close friends.
Substance Use Framing
- Emily said people do not choose addiction as an outcome and should not be judged by their worst day.
- She described substance use disorder as a disease shaped by chemical dependence, trauma, and life circumstances rather than a moral failing.
Response Strategy
- The discussion focused on stigma as a barrier to care and on the limits of older enforcement-first approaches.
- Emily said the current model emphasizes harm reduction, peer support specialists, treatment access, and meeting people where they are.
Intervention Tools
- Emily described Narcan as an easy-to-use nasal spray that reverses an opioid overdose and said everyone, including students and adults, should carry it.
- She said a first intervention may involve treatment, basic hygiene, or temporary safety, depending on what the person is ready to accept.
Outcomes Resources
- Emily reported a 50 percent decline in overdose deaths from the 2021 high and said the state is at its lowest level in 10 years, with non-fatal overdoses also declining.
- She directed people to stopoverdose.maryland.gov for treatment resources, Narcan access, and a public dashboard tracking opioid restitution fund spending by county and city.
Nestor Aparicio 0:00
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 15 70,000 Baltimore. Baltimore positive. We are positively here in Ocean City, Maryland. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. At some point, I’m going to grab these lottery tickets that I have offset and and pull it over because this guest is not a Ravens fan. She is the former mayor of Hagerstown, Maryland, and now the special opioid response.
Emily Keller 0:27
Special secretary of overdose response.
Nestor Aparicio 0:31
Special secretary of overdose response. She is Emily Keller. She is a recurring figure in my life ever since I saw her get mouthy on Twitter like 10 years ago, and I’m like, I want to have you on the show. You’re the mouthy mayor of Hagerstown. Yeah, I’ve been through your story and your friend’s addiction and your movement from insurance to becoming a political figure. Which I think, as I still spend time with you, you’re as about an unlikely a political person as I would be at this point. You’re the least political political person, but you’re now what? Are you three years into this gig? How long have you had this gig with Wes
Emily Keller 1:06
Moore?
8
Nestor Aparicio 1:07
I mean, you were appointed from from the beginning. Yes. So he pulled you from the mayor’s the mayorship in Agerstown to work, not really in Annapolis, but an Annapolis-based issue that is it’s not black. It’s not white. It’s not rich. It’s not poor. It’s not Eastern Shore or Chesapeake State or whatever I’m going to come up with. But this is something you saw in Hagerstown that that that’s a. I wouldn’t say it’s a white problem in Hagerstown, but it’s certainly a poverty issue, right? I mean, and doesn’t just attack poverty. But this came to your doorstep, and I, you know, I know the mayor to be a heart, or the governor to be a heartfelt man. He looked at you and said, “You’re the right person to go fight this issue that’s killing our citizens. Right, literally.
Emily Keller 1:53
Thank you. I, yeah, I think it resonated because I wasn’t a politician and I’m not a doctor, but I lived it. I lived through it with my best friend, with friends I went to high school with, and I was watching our community and our state suffer with this issue. And I, 10 years ago, I thought people aren’t doing enough. We’re not doing enough. We need to humanize this issue because it could be me, it could be you. We need to start treating people like human beings and stop judging them by their worst day, their worst marriage, and realize that people can recover. We need to give them the resources to
Nestor Aparicio 2:27
do that. What is that? So, like, I had parents that were addicted to alcohol more so than drugs, but I, in my own family, the AA and the dry out and all of those issues-they’ve come to my doorstep as close as they can come. They killed my mother in the end. Alcoholism, but stopping bad habits, right? Like that’s a human. We’re human, right? Like just literally, this is not something that Chunky wants to be strung out and laying against that that wall that you pass when you’re walking through whatever doesn’t have to be Baltimore. I mean, this is everywhere. It’s literally everywhere. What? Give me some hope. Tell me what’s going on. Give me a success story, man. Well,
Emily Keller 3:15
first of all, no one wakes up when they’re a little kid and writes a new diary. You know what I want to do when I get older, right? I want to use drugs, and I want to destroy everything around me and my body, and hurt people that I love, and hurt myself. No one does that. We all make decisions every day that impact our life. So, you know, you and I just had lunch together. We both drank a soda, and we joked how we never drink soda, right? But and if I belch, it’s because of my carbonation. And if we were doing that all the time, you know, we can. That leads to health issues and weight gain and things like that. We go out and we eat McDonald’s, which affects our health. We all make decisions every day that that end up having consequences. And people who use drugs, that is what it is. They have a disease and they’re chemically dependent. Not everyone’s recovery looks the same, so we have to make sure we’re providing tools for people to have what they need to keep them alive while they are using drugs or substances. And when they’re ready to get treatment, make sure the treatment options are available because AA does work for some people about their use disorder doesn’t work for some people. It’s very faith-based. Maybe you’re not a faith-based person, so maybe you know getting medications for alcohol use disorder will be beneficial to you. Maybe you know different kinds of therapy, rehab. It looks different for everyone. So we want to make sure across Maryland, no matter where you’re at, no matter what you’re struggling with, we have a resource that can help you.
Nestor Aparicio 4:37
I would think that in the 1970s, and I’m really having problems with my levels here because we’re in two different like universes here. I think I can be heard. I think when I was a kid, if I had a drug problem, my dad would have just yelled at me, told me to stop, right? Like literally, I think that’s like I don’t think my parents would have known any better, like literally. And I’m thinking about everyone I. Who were strung out, or on drugs, or on the wrong path in whatever way they were, they had a parent that just yelled at it, right? Like, what? What? How has that changed? And how has a state agency taken something like this, where when your child has a problem, when your loved one, when your best friend, in your case, has an? My mother has an addiction that the government can be involved in some way that maybe 20 years ago was just shame, just literally shame. And you have a problem, and you’re bad, and you’re evil, and this is, or you’re going to hell, or if that’s from Facebook, whatever it would be, it was fear, not real like assistance, like real help, right? Stigma.
Emily Keller 5:43
I mean, stigma is killing people, and and and shaming someone is just going to make them not want to reach out for help. And you know, our drug supply now is drastically different than it was in the 70s. Things are more dangerous, and we’ve learned from our mistakes. You know, for a long time it was lock them up, lock them up, lock them up. We had this heavy enforcement, you know, through the crack era, through the ’80s. It didn’t work. We wouldn’t be here if it worked. So we had to say, like, what are we doing wrong? Because you can’t force someone to get treatment if they don’t want it. Driving someone in jail is not solving the underlying. That’s really what we did, right? We just put them in jail. Yeah. And you’re not rehabilitating someone. You’re not treating the reason that they’re using drugs, which is often childhood trauma or other things in their life that they’re doing to escape from. So, putting someone in a jail cell and saying, “Hey, go get better. We’ll see you in a year, it doesn’t work, and it hasn’t worked. So now we have those mistakes behind us. We know we have evidence that shows that people need support. We need. I talked about harm reduction earlier. We need to make sure they’re as healthy as can be while they are using drugs. So when they’re ready to get help, we can treat the substance use disorder, and we don’t have all these other underlying health issues. We know once someone’s in recovery, you have to be supportive of them and provide if they want to go to meetings, if they want to do sober events, if they.
Nestor Aparicio 7:03
Did you make mistakes with your girlfriend? Now you look back that you lost.
8Emily Keller 7:07
Absolutely.
Nestor Aparicio 7:08
Okay, so let’s let’s let’s start this over with. You’re an insurance agent. Your girlfriend has a drug problem. Did you have a drug problem? I’ve never asked you. I
Emily Keller 7:17
did not.
Nestor Aparicio 7:17
Did not. Never used. No. No. So they come to your doorstep? Do you see it? Heroin, cocaine. What is it? What’s the drug?
Emily Keller 7:24
Hers is heroin.
Nestor Aparicio 7:25
Heroin. Okay, so if she’s alive today and you’re the drug czar, or even if you’re not, some lady like you is. What happens to her? You grab her and you say, “You have a problem. I love you. We’re going to do what with you? And you don’t have any money. You don’t have 50 grand to get into a rehab or tank. What what happens? What can you do right now in Ocean City if I identify some young person that has a problem out here, grab them? What becomes of them other than a jail cell, which is ever what my dad would have been afraid of yelling at me 30 years ago, 40 years ago, right? Like you’re gonna go to jail. You’re going to get locked up. You know, like literally, that was the fear, right?
Emily Keller 8:04
So right now, I immediately try to get people in touch with a peer, peer support specialist, which is someone who has lived experience, someone who normally has used drugs in the past, is now in recovery, because they can walk along and talk to talk and make connection with the person that they’re trying to get help. And it’s more about what do you need in this exact moment, and sometimes that person is ready. Like I’m ready to go to treatment. I’m ready to go today, and then we figure out where to get them, what treatment option is best for them. Sometimes they’re not ready to go to treatment. Sometimes what they need in that moment is a shower and just a place to to get off the street. Yes, and just like figure out what their next steps are, and we have to meet people where they’re at. What I did with my best friend Ashley is I tried to force the issue, like, oh, oh my goodness, we’re going to the hospital. I’m gonna make you do it. I’m gonna make it. Walk in that hospital. We’re gonna get you out, and she wasn’t ready. And now we know, like, what is it that she needed in that moment, and how can we get you over time? Whether it’s the first time I ask or the 100th time I ask, we just got to keep asking and meeting them where they’re at, and not expecting what we expect. It’s what the person wants in that moment, and that works. It works, and it’s it’s a frustrating process because you know I look at someone who comes to me and says, “I want help, but I’m just not ready at this moment. And I think, “Why, please, like, let let us help you. Now is the right time. Yeah, yeah. And and that’s something we’ve had to come to terms with. And and now that we are meeting people where they’re at and meeting people what they need in that moment, it’s working. Which is why we’re seeing you know over those destinies, we
8Nestor Aparicio 9:42
are. I know you’ve been looking at stats, so update me here because I don’t, I don’t know how many people are addicted. But I’m probably appalled when I find out just how many are getting treatment, let alone the people that aren’t that we don’t know about, right?
Emily Keller 9:56
Overdose deaths. We are at a the lowest we’ve been in. From 2025 to 2026, so it’s been a 50% decrease since our high in 2021, and the lowest in 10 years. So less people are dying, which is obviously the ultimate ultimate goal. Also, less people are using drugs because non-fatal overdoses. We’re seeing decreases there too. So part of it is. Explain
Nestor Aparicio 10:29
that because we you run ads and I see them and I see the billboards, but I don’t have drug addicts in my life. You know what I mean? I just don’t like I I know
Speaker 1 10:38
that.
Nestor Aparicio 10:38
Well, fair enough, but I mean as far as walking down the street, I was in New York last week. I see people at Baltimore. I see people. I would think, I would hope that I would know how to do that, but I don’t. I don’t. I don’t know what I’m doing.
Emily Keller 10:52
Your company might be later. Okay. It’s a nasal spray. Honestly, if you’ve ever used like Afrin or an allergy nasal spray, that’s what it is. It’s a medication that reverses your period overdose, and I always say the only thing it enables is breathing. It tells your body to breathe.
Nestor Aparicio 11:09
Okay.
8Emily Keller 11:10
So if someone is experiencing an overdose,
Nestor Aparicio 11:12
it creates involuntary breathing.
Speaker 2 11:14
Yeah, that’s good.
Nestor Aparicio 11:15
Yeah, sure. Yeah, it
Emily Keller 11:16
can save their life. So we want everyone to have it: students, adults, everyone. Because while you may not know someone in your direct circle that’s using drugs, you could walk out here right now. This isn’t
Nestor Aparicio 11:26
Pulp Fiction. I need a needle and a leg. No, no, this isn’t okay. It’s
Emily Keller 11:29
not scary. Yeah, just not scary. You just spray it in your notes, and you never know where you’re going to come across. I mean, it’s public bathrooms. It’s in public. It’s and you talked in the beginning how drug use knows your boundaries. It’s not a black or white thing. It’s not a Richard Wood thing. It’s it’s everywhere. So there could be people from this conference center right now who who are actively using substances, and we just don’t know if if I come across someone who’s over there.
8Nestor Aparicio 11:58
You guys with you right now? I do. All right. Yeah, we have your bag in it. Emily Keller’s here. She is the special special
Emily Keller 12:05
secretary of overdose response.
Nestor Aparicio 12:07
There you go. Our our drug czar here in the state of Maryland, and unfortunately, this is where the conversation is going to take a turn for everybody. She roots for the wrong football team in the state of Maryland. Anything you want to say about football season? I mean, your team has reemerged with the quarterback. I mean, the championship game that was was a great moment for you to get there. Kind of like Ravens fans, we got there, but we can’t break through. And I know you dream of this Baltimore v Washington Super Bowl and like all that, but I can’t laugh at the Commanders, you know. I mean, I like the coach immensely. The quarterback’s a good kid. I mean, I still can’t wash the Dan Snyder out of my hair or the Redskin thing. I’m still trying to wash Angelos out of my baseball gear, but look at look at how we are. It does feel like if you’re you’re one of two or three I have in my life that are Burgundy Gold people, my buddy Scotty P from Meechies being the other was there he got chased away. I don’t know if there’s a point where you feel better about going back. I guess that that is my question. Do you feel better about it when you go and give them money, which you do.
Emily Keller 13:21
One thing you can say about me, or no one can say about me, is I don’t care about the fan. I have been Redskins Command. I know
Nestor Aparicio 13:29
this
Emily Keller 13:29
my entire life, and the last time we won the Super Bowl, I was six. I’m 40, and it’s been a long time, right? And I’ve cheered every single year. I’ve shared love every single year. I love the command.
Nestor Aparicio 13:41
You’ve never thought about giving it up. Not when they went to that goofy W. When they were the WFT.
8Speaker 2 13:48
Nope.
Nestor Aparicio 13:48
Not the WTF. Yes.
Emily Keller 13:49
Right. Yeah. I did have a WTF sign though that looked like the
Nestor Aparicio 13:53
logo. The Washington team football, but WTF is? We were all wondering that.
Emily Keller 13:57
Headed my office in Hagerstown, actually. But you know, they’ve made it hard to live. Dance numbers are very hard to love, but Hagerstown’s a Pittsburgh town, though.
Nestor Aparicio 14:06
Where the Steelers fans are mainly right? They’re confused. You all are confused.
Emily Keller 14:11
I am not.
8Nestor Aparicio 14:12
Dude, your donut shop opens at night. You are confused, people, and Hagerstown.
Emily Keller 14:17
Shout out to Pub.
Nestor Aparicio 14:18
Hey, let me do a quick Hagerstown thing with you because like when I came to hang out up there, you had built this sports complex in a park. I remember it kind of vividly. I’ve had Tom Prolazo and the mayor Mihan on down Ocean City talking about trying to make Ocean City over in Berlin this huge 190 acre complex where this becomes that. No offense to Hagerstown, but you ain’t got a beach there, right? Like that, that, like that. People would, but I know you built that in an effort to try to lure Frederick and Cumberland and Baltimore and and rec organizations and different people to come to Hagerstown, get a hotel, shop the outlets, see a ball game at the Mara. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Trying to give some Hagerstown love here is what I’m trying to do. But in a general sense, you did this sports thing,
Emily Keller 15:09
and I.
Nestor Aparicio 15:10
So what did that mean? And does it? Am I right in saying it brings people in regionally for sure?
Emily Keller 15:15
It does. It’s 114,000 square foot indoor turf and hardcore facility. There’s two full-size turf courts, four hard courts. There’s a gym that you can go to, a restaurant. It’s incredible, and they’re busy the time. So when the Meredith Park was built, which is for the stadium, the baseball stadium, we tore down the old baseball stadium, municipal stadium for a million years, and built the Peggard. it allows you know indoor soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, basketball. Talking about keeping kids
Nestor Aparicio 15:49
off, destroying people, right? Give people something to do. Sure.
8Emily Keller 15:52
And and you drive by the parking lot at any given hour on any given day. They’ve had tournaments in there already. They’ve been cheerleading, tournaments, conferences, all kinds of. That’s what I say. Like
Nestor Aparicio 16:02
cheerleader tournaments, that brings people from everywhere, and that’s the kind of thing you can do in Hagerstown. It’s cute and it’s nice, and it really helps Hagerstown. Ocean City trying to compete with Virginia Beach on bringing like huge baseball, lacrosse, all of that. That’s kind of a neat thing that they’re building down here. And you’re the only one I thought of because I mean we’re trying to do Rex and Parks and the City Academy, do all that, but to to be a a lure and an attraction that would create families to get hotel rooms in Maryland as opposed to Delaware or Virginia, I think that’s kind of a neat thing. And you had a little arm of that out in Hagers, little Hagerstown, trying to be hey come to our tournament in Hagerstown this weekend. Get a room and come out and see us.
Emily Keller 16:43
One of my most proud things. I know it is. I was no longer in office, but it was like, hey, we did it because we said we’re going to build this facility and we saw it through. It’s a very good thing.
Nestor Aparicio 16:53
My friend, the former mayor of Hagerstown, Emily Keller’s here. She’s the special czar to the envoy to Westmore of all things opioid response and making sure that people stay on the up and up. Any PSA you want to give in regard to how people find more information? If you have a loved one who has a drug problem, I’m going to bring you back for a couple Super Bowl. That’s when our first crab cake together should be Super Bowl week. Now neither one of our teams are going to be in it. Maybe we’ll see. My team, the purple team, has probably a better chance than the burgundy team. But either way, that week before you go to LA to the Super Bowl, you come out on Monday or Tuesday, and we’re going to do some charity stuff. And maybe you can give me a couple of organizations and some leaders locally to come out, and I can talk to some people about it because it affects everyone, man. You know, I mean, you know, in my family, drug use and and addiction. Yeah, I mean, I in the Dundalk. I mean, I am around me everywhere. It’s we got to talk about it. You can’t. You can’t run from it.
Emily Keller 17:50
So we have a website, stopoverdose.maryland.gov, that you can go to stopoverdose.maryland.gov. We have a list of resources. You can find out where you can get Narcan, find out treatment options, and we also have a dashboard for the opioid restitution fund dollars, which are the lawsuit, not income pharmaceutical companies. You can click on your county, your city, and see how they are spending their money, which is a very cool thing. It’s very transparent. So if you’re curious, hey, we know we got all this money with lawsuit money. Go to our website and see exactly where it’s going in your county.
Nestor Aparicio 18:27
right. Next time I’m in Hagerstown, 7 p.m. 7:01 Donuts. Emily Keller’s here. I visited Hagerstown last year with Johnny Allen. We went up to see the the Meatloaf tribute at what a beautiful theater you have in your town. Whoa, shoot, man! What if you haven’t been to the theater up in Hagerstown? Get up there. I had the mayor of Frederick on earlier talking about the Weinberg, which I haven’t been to. So I told him I almost went to see Air Supply there. So get the right show in Hagerstown. Give me a good meatloaf tribute. I’m all about it. I went to Rick’s Cafe. I went to Crumpies with the former mayor and the drug czar, and I went to the to what’s the name of the club up there that John played? It’s the
Emily Keller 19:06
Hub City Vinyl.
8Nestor Aparicio 19:08
Hub City Vinyl, the
Emily Keller 19:08
largest vinyl store on the East Coast.
Nestor Aparicio 19:12
I dropped John off. He hung posters. That’s what happens when your best friend’s a rock star. You know, so
Emily Keller 19:17
all these reasons come next time.
Nestor Aparicio 19:21
You’re still the mayor. You’re always the mayor, right? Still live there.
Emily Keller 19:25
I do still live there.
Nestor Aparicio 19:26
All right, Emily Keller’s here. Everybody needs to have one commander fan in their life so they can razz them. She’s my one. We’re back for more from Makeup. We’re Baltimore Positive. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. We’ll be at get this right. Fishmonger’s daughter on the 19th, Koco’s on the 26th, and coming to a crab cake in Puringham near you. We’re both of our positive. Stay with us.
