Suzanne Harrison, who runs King's Crusade in honor of her brother who died of an overdose in 2016, poses for a photo on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Evesham, New Jersey. Ms Harrison said the charity would be able to use funding from opioid settlements across the country to help people if: Local governments have made it available to groups like hers. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Settlement money to stem the decades-long opioid addiction and overdose epidemic is being rolled out in small towns and big cities across the country, but advocates say the vast majority of it will be spent in ways that won't impact the crisis. I am concerned that this may be the case.
As states and local governments look for ways to spend the money, advocates say they have the right tools to identify community needs and direct funding to projects that use proven methods to prevent deaths. They argue that there may not be enough room to take action.
States alone fought the tobacco industry in the 1990s, but only spent a small portion of the settlements on tobacco-related initiatives.
“We don't want to say in 10 years, 'After we failed with tobacco, we trusted small government with opioids — and then we did something even worse,'” said Paul Farrell Jr., one of the lead attorneys. . He represents local governments in opioid litigation.
For many, it's personal.
Suzanne Harrison and her family, a New Jersey resident, died after her older brother, Navy veteran King Shafer Jr., died of a fentanyl and heroin overdose in 2016, days before he was due to be retested. has started a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing access to treatment and recovery programs. treatment program.
At the time, he was staying with his sister in Moorestown, New Jersey.
The town administration has decided to turn over a portion of the settlement proceeds to Burlington County. The county has used the settlement money to distribute overdose antidotes and run camps for children struggling with addiction.
“The county was in a much better position to address this issue,” Township Administrator Kevin Abellant said in an email, pointing to reporting requirements and restrictions on how the funds could be spent.
Large-scale opioid settlements, including deals with Walgreens Co., CVS Health, Walmart, and Johnson & Johnson, as well as a deal with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that is before the U.S. Supreme Court, have put most of the money out of the crisis. It is required to be used to fight.
More than half of the funds will be administered by local governments, said Christine Mini, who runs the Opioid Payment Tracker website. In the largest agreements, states would receive more money if they bring eligible municipalities with populations of 10,000 or more into the settlement.
Unlike most states, New Jersey required local governments to prepare financial reports.
The Associated Press used these filings and additional reporting to examine spending and decision-making processes in communities in Burlington County, including suburban and rural Philadelphia. Fourteen communities there have received allocations, and by June of last year, the amounts ranged from $5,000 to nearly $88,000.
As of last year, most communities in Burlington County had not yet spent their allocated funds, and the process for gathering public input, developing a strategic plan, assessing community needs, and awarding funds. I also didn't follow the advice for designing the .
In Mount Laurel, New Jersey, the police department took charge and launched an awareness campaign near budget motels where first responders often administer overdose antidotes. The idea is to connect people with treatment and other services, but supporters want police not to be in charge of spending.
Deputy Police Chief Tim Hudnall also said the department is considering hiring peer support navigators to help people deal with addiction.
Another New Jersey town, Willingboro, spent just over $57,000 on a back-to-school wellness event where students received backpacks filled with school supplies and mental health information.
“We've tried to be proactive,” Deputy Township Administrator Gary Lowery II said of disbursing the funds. “Otherwise, it just stays there.”
But these approaches rely on community needs assessments, which Sarah Whaley, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who is helping write the guide for counties, says is essential. I haven't.
Some service providers, such as Schaefer's sister Suzanne Harrison, find the process frustrating. Her organization, King's Crusade, helps connect people with services, pays rent for sober living facilities and provides transportation to treatment. They raise as much as $80,000 a year, but they always need more.
Ms Harrison said she had not previously had the opportunity to apply for a grant allocation. In exchange, the organization received $6,625 in opioid settlement funds to host a one-time recovery community event in Evesham Township.
In Burlington County's most populous suburb of Evesham, with a population of 45,000 people, most of the control of the settlement fund goes to the Local Alliance to Prevent Alcoholism and Drug Addiction, which Whaley said should be involved. he claims.
Mark Romano, director of operations for Burlington County Prevention Plus, also said he wished there had been a request for proposals on how to use the money. The organization was paid $2,000 to host a painting night for women in recovery, which she said was “a great event to raise awareness of recovery and recovery.” , the organization will be able to do even more by securing funding to support its programs in its mission of prevention.
City Councilwoman Heather Cooper, whose brother died of a fentanyl overdose, said there are service providers in the area who can take people to treatment, give them rides and provide other services. Ta.
“But what we're hearing is that families still don't know where those resources are,” she said. “So I think we need to step up that marketing.”
Other governments have taken different approaches.
In Arkansas, all towns and counties pooled their funds to create the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership.
Grants will provide $100,000 to faith-based organizations to hire an overdose investigator and companion recovery specialist to the Drug Task Force, and to hire a companion recovery specialist to the Arkansas American Indian Center Projects ranging from over $200,000 were paid to expand the recovery housing center. 2 million dollars.
Kirk Lane, a former police chief and director of state drug policy who now heads the partnership, said the partnership will help direct projects to underserved areas of the state and provide treatment, He said it can fill gaps in the recovery and prevention system.
“Individual mayors and county judges didn't have to worry about, 'How are we going to spend that money?'” he explained.
