Prior to now few years, state and native governments throughout the U.S. have begun spending billions in opioid settlements paid by corporations accused of fueling the overdose disaster. However the place is that cash going, who’s getting it, and is it doing any good?
KFF Well being Information, partnering with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Faculty of Public Well being and Shatterproof, a nationwide nonprofit centered on dependancy, undertook a yearlong investigation to seek out out.
Dozens of interviews, hundreds of pages of paperwork, an array of public data requests, and outreach to all 50 states resulted in a first-of-its sort database that catalogs greater than 7,000 methods opioid settlement money was utilized in 2022 and 2023. It’s essentially the most complete useful resource up to now monitoring a few of the largest public well being settlements in American historical past.
Among the many findings:
- States and localities acquired greater than $6 billion in opioid settlement funds in 2022 and 2023. In accordance with public data, they spent or dedicated a few third of that quantity and put aside about one other third for future use. The ultimate third was untrackable, as many jurisdictions didn’t produce public reviews on the funds.
- Studies of spending tracked the minuscule to the monumental, from $11.74 to purchase postage in Yavapai County, Arizona, to greater than $51 million to extend the dependancy remedy workforce in California.
- States allotted, on common, about 18% of their funds for dependancy and psychological well being remedy; 14% for restoration providers reminiscent of housing, transportation, and authorized assist; 11% for hurt discount efforts reminiscent of overdose reversal medicines; and 9% for prevention packages that intention to cease folks from creating substance use problems. States dedicated, on common, about 2% for syringe service packages, by which individuals can get sterile needles. (A wide range of entities acquired this cash, from legislation enforcement to nonprofit organizations to authorities companies.)
- Governments reported spending greater than $240 million on functions that didn’t qualify as opioid remediation. (Most settlements permit states to spend as much as 15% of their funds this fashion.) Most of this tranche went to authorized charges, however a number of jurisdictions funneled cash to their basic fund. One county even despatched funds to its street and bridge division.
- A number of cities and counties reported expenditures they mentioned addressed the overdose disaster however that would depart a mean individual scratching their head — reminiscent of $33.07 to an anti-abortion being pregnant middle in Sandborn, Indiana, and $30,362 to display first responders for coronary heart illness in Oregon Metropolis, Oregon.
“When people know that people aren’t watching and there’s no accountability, then they can kind of do what they want,” mentioned Tonja Myles, a group activist in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who’s in restoration. “That’s why we have to have some kind of database and accountability.”
Regardless of the current decline in total overdose deaths within the U.S., greater than 90,000 folks nonetheless died within the 12 months ending July 2024 and charges are rising in lots of Black and Native American communities.
“We can’t mess up or miss this moment,” Myles mentioned.
Opioid settlement payouts are anticipated to whole about $50 billion over almost 20 years, paid by greater than a dozen corporations that made or distributed prescription painkillers, together with Johnson & Johnson, Walgreens, and Walmart. Though it’s a big sum, it’s dwarfed by the scale of the disaster, making every greenback that’s spent vital.
KFF Well being Information and its companions reviewed lots of of settlement spending reviews, extracting expenditures line by line, and developed a strategy to type the expenditures into classes like remedy or prevention. States got a possibility to evaluate the information and touch upon their spending.
To make sure, the database doesn’t seize the total image of opioid settlement spending nationwide. Some locations don’t publish spending reviews, whereas others declined to have interaction with this mission. The information introduced here’s a snapshot as of the tip of 2023 and doesn’t account for additional spending in 2024. The variations in how states management, course of, and report on the cash make apples-to-apples comparisons almost unimaginable. Nonetheless, the database helps fill a niche left by an absence of nationwide reporting necessities and federal authorities inaction.
It’s “a tool for those who want to objectively measure whether everything that can be done is being done,” mentioned Matthew Myers, a former president of the Marketing campaign for Tobacco-Free Children, which compiles related annual reviews on tobacco settlement cash.
Therapy a Clear Winner
The highest precedence to emerge from early opioid settlement spending was remedy, with greater than $416 million spent or dedicated to residential rehabs, outpatient counseling, medicines for opioid use dysfunction, and extra.
The state of New York — which spent essentially the most on remedy — allotted about $22 million of that for packages that make the gold normal for care as simple as potential for sufferers: offering same-day prescriptions for buprenorphine, a medicine that decreases cravings for opioids.
The end result was a program that John Greene mentioned modified his life.
Greene, 57, used to stay within the woods down the road from Household & Youngsters’s Counseling Providers in Cortland, New York. He cycled by jails and hospitals, overdosing half a dozen instances and attempting rehab simply as many.
However now he has 4 months of restoration beneath his belt — the longest stint since he began commonly utilizing medication at 14.
He mentioned it’s as a result of the counseling middle’s new program — funded by a mixture of state and native opioid settlement {dollars} — has a unique strategy. Counselors aren’t didactic and judgmental. They don’t power him to quit smoking marijuana. A number of employees members have skilled dependancy themselves. They drive Greene, who doesn’t have a automotive, to physician appointments and the pharmacy for his buprenorphine prescription.
Now Greene lives and works together with his brother, appears to be like ahead to weekly counseling periods, and is notching small victories — reminiscent of shopping for his nephew toy vehicles as a stocking stuffer.
“It made me feel good to do something for somebody and not expect nothing back,” Greene mentioned.
Emily Georgia, one among Greene’s counselors, mentioned the middle has labored with almost 200 folks like him prior to now yr. With out the settlements, “the program probably wouldn’t exist,” she mentioned.
Throughout the nation, the cash helps different progressive remedy approaches:
- $21 million for a brand new program in Kentucky that diverts folks with psychological sickness or dependancy who face low-level costs away from incarceration and into remedy, training, and workforce coaching
- Greater than $3 million for, partially, three new cellular methadone packages in Massachusetts, to carry the treatment to rural and underserved areas
- Tens of hundreds of {dollars} every in Iowa and Pennsylvania to cowl out-of-pocket remedy prices for folks with out insurance coverage or these with excessive deductibles
Philip Rutherford, an professional on substance use dysfunction on the Nationwide Council for Psychological Wellbeing, mentioned these efforts “are really positive” and lots of have been “historically difficult or impossible to achieve with federal or state funding.”
However some funds are additionally flowing to remedy approaches that defy greatest practices, reminiscent of denying folks medicines for opioid use dysfunction.
Some within the restoration group think about methadone and buprenorphine a crutch. However research after research present that the medicines assist folks keep in remedy and cut back the threat of overdose and demise. Analysis even suggests that remedy with out these medicines could be extra dangerous than no remedy in any respect.
Though not everybody will need treatment, settlement funds shouldn’t “prop up a system that doesn’t allow people to have that choice,” mentioned Regina LaBelle, a professor of dependancy coverage at Georgetown College.
Infants, Forgotten Victims of the Epidemic
Whereas remedy acquired a windfall in early opioid settlement spending, one other side of the disaster was uncared for: neonatal abstinence syndrome, a situation during which infants uncovered to medication within the womb expertise withdrawal.
Nationwide, greater than 59 newborns a day are recognized with it. But solely about $8.4 million in settlement cash was dedicated to the difficulty — lower than 0.5% of all funds publicly reported as spent or dedicated in 2022 and 2023.
Consultants in public well being and dependancy, in addition to affected households, say it’s on account of stigma.
“A mom using drugs and being a parent is a very uncomfortable reality to face,” mentioned Ashley Grant, a 38-year-old mom of three in Mesa, Arizona. “It’s easier to just push it under the rug or let them fall through the cracks, as sad as that is.”
It virtually occurred to her.
Grant discovered she was pregnant along with her third little one final yr. On the time, her companion was in jail and she or he was utilizing medication after an eight-year interval of restoration, was estranged from her household, and didn’t know the way she’d survive the following 9 months.
Throughout a go to to a methadone clinic, she noticed a sales space about Jacob’s Hope, a specialty nursery that cares for substance-exposed newborns and their mothers. Nursery employees related her with a therapist, helped her enroll in parenting courses, and dropped off diapers and a playpen at her residence.
After delivering on the hospital, Grant and her child boy stayed at Jacob’s Hope for a few week. Nurses confirmed her how skin-to-skin contact calmed his withdrawal signs and extra frequent feedings and burpings decreased gastrointestinal discomfort, which is widespread amongst substance-exposed newborns.
Immediately, Grant has roughly 5 months of restoration. She received licensed as a peer restoration specialist and hopes to affix Jacob’s Hope sooner or later to assist mothers like her.
However the nursery’s future is unsure.
After opening in 2019, Jacob’s Hope almost shut down this summer time on account of low reimbursements and delayed funds from insurers, mentioned Lyndsey Steele, its affiliate director. Neighborhood donations stored the nursery afloat, however “it’s still hanging on by a thread,” she mentioned.
She’s hoping opioid settlement cash will help.
In 2022, Jacob’s Hope acquired about $250,000 from Arizona’s opioid settlements. However this yr, the legislature captured the state’s share of remaining funds and, in a controversial transfer, gave it to the Division of Corrections.
Jacob’s Hope has now turned to native governments, which management their very own settlement {dollars}. Its residence metropolis of Mesa mentioned a primary spherical of grant functions ought to open within the spring.
Steele prays it received’t be too late for infants in want — the epidemic’s “forgotten victims,” she referred to as them.
Coronary heart Illness Screening, Robotic Ambulances, and Extra
Some opioid settlement expenditures have sparked fierce disagreement. They often fall into three buckets: cash for legislation enforcement, funding for youth prevention packages, and purchases unrelated to the opioid disaster.
Settlement {dollars} nationwide have purchased physique scanners, Ok-9 models, bulletproof vests, patrol vans, and laptops and printers for police and sheriffs.
Some spending strayed even farther from the spirit of the settlement. In Oregon Metropolis, Oregon, greater than $30,000 was spent on screening first responders for coronary heart illness. Police Chief Shaun Davis mentioned his employees reply to opioid-related emergencies and expertise trauma that will increase their threat of coronary heart assault.
However some folks query if settlement funds must be footing the invoice.
“This looks to me like you’re trying to defray other costs” from the police finances, mentioned Stephen Loyd, chair of Tennessee’s Opioid Abatement Council. “I don’t think that there’s any way that this opioid money was earmarked for stuff like that.”
A second space of competition is youth prevention.
Though most individuals agree that stopping youngsters from creating addictions is necessary, the execution is difficult.
Practically half one million settlement {dollars} have gone to the Drug Abuse Resistance Schooling program, generally often known as D.A.R.E. Many years of analysis counsel its authentic curriculum is ineffective.
Robeson County, North Carolina, spent about $10,000 in settlement cash to purchase “Andy the Ambulance,” a robotic ambulance with large eyes and an audio system by which a human operator can focus on the hazards of medication. EMS Director Patrick Cummings mentioned his staff has taken the robotic to church buildings and elementary colleges.
We “don’t have any studies that show it’s working,” he mentioned, however educating youngsters looks as if an excellent funding as a result of “if they never try it, they don’t get addicted.”
Then there’s the chunk of cash — as much as 15% of every state’s funds — that’s a free-for-all.
Flint, Michigan, spent almost $10,000 on an indication for a group service middle. The town reported that the expense didn’t qualify as “opioid remediation.” In different phrases, it’s unrelated to addressing the disaster.
However Caitie O’Neill, a metropolis spokesperson, mentioned that “the building sign makes it possible for residents to find” the middle, which homes metropolis providers, “including Narcan kits, fentanyl testing strips, and substance abuse referrals.”
Jurisdictions throughout 29 states reported non-remediation spending in 2022 and 2023. Most opioid settlements require such reviews however function on an honor system. Nobody is checking if the opposite 21 states and Washington, D.C., had been truthful.
Jackie Lewis, an Ohio mom whose 34-year-old son, Shaun, died of an overdose in October 2022, finds that onerous to abdomen.
“This is blood money,” she mentioned. Some folks have “lost sight of that.”
Lewis is elevating Shaun’s daughter, making certain the 9-year-old receives counseling at college and may attend the hip-hop music courses she enjoys — all on Lewis’ Social Safety funds. This yr they moved to a smaller city with decrease prices.
As settlement funds proceed flowing, she desires officers in control of the cash to assist households like hers.
“We still exist and we’re still struggling,” she mentioned.
KFF Well being Information’ Henry Larweh and Megan Kalata, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Faculty of Public Well being’s Sara Whaley and Vivian Flanagan, and Shatterproof’s Kristen Pendergrass and Sahvanah Prescott contributed to this text.
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Faculty of Public Well being has taken a number one position in offering steering to state and native governments on the usage of opioid settlement funds. College from the varsity collaborated with different specialists within the area to create rules for utilizing the cash, which have been endorsed by over 60 organizations.
Shatterproof is a nationwide nonprofit that addresses substance use dysfunction by distinct initiatives, together with advocating for state and federal insurance policies, ending dependancy stigma, and educating communities concerning the remedy system.
Shatterproof is partnering with some states on tasks funded by opioid settlements. KFF Well being Information, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Faculty of Public Well being, and the Shatterproof staff who labored on this report aren’t concerned in these efforts.
