In the past few years, state and local governments across the U.S. have begun spending billions in opioid settlements paid by companies accused of fueling the overdose crisis. But where is that money going, who is getting it, and is it doing any good? [KFF Health News}
KFF Health News, partnering with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Shatterproof, a national nonprofit focused on addiction, undertook a yearlong investigation to find out.
Dozens of interviews, thousands of pages of documents, an array of public records requests, and outreach to all 50 states resulted in a first-of-its kind database that catalogs more than 7,000 ways opioid settlement cash was used in 2022 and 2023. It’s the most comprehensive resource to date tracking some of the largest public health settlements in American history.
Among the findings:
- States and localities received more than $6 billion in opioid settlement funds in 2022 and 2023. According to public records, they spent or committed about a third of that amount and set aside about another third for future use. The final third was untrackable, as many jurisdictions did not produce public reports on the funds.
- Reports of spending tracked the minuscule to the monumental, from $11.74 to buy postage in Yavapai County, Arizona, to more than $51 million to increase the addiction treatment workforce in California.
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