reporter: mike gimbel is a counselor and a consultant at the maryland addiction recovery center.e's also been a recovering addict for the past 44 years. the current opioid epidemic has to do with doctors over-prescribing pain medications to patients, and international cartels introducing new kinds of powerful synthetic drugs like fentanyl to the market. mike: why aren't we dealing with it? there's a lot of denial in certain areas. middle class neighborhoods or schools, they don't want to admit that their kids are doing heroin. families don't want to admit it. by the time they find out, sometimes it's too late. so it's a matter of waking up the public about this awareness, and then the government is certainly not doing their job in providing the resources. treatment -- that's treatment resources -- number one on the list of what we need that doesn't exist. reporter: but as opioid-related deaths continue to increase across the country, the u.s. government is beginning to take the problem seriously. in march 2017, the governor of maryland declared a state of emergency to combat the