News Drug policy reform group sues the board responsible for spending half of Ohio’s opioid settlement money

[thegreenhand]

Drug policy reform group sues the board responsible for spending half of Ohio’s opioid settlement money​

Karen Kasler
WOUB (NPR local affiliate)
10 Aug 2022

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — A drug policy reform group said the foundation set up by the state to spend more than $400 million in opioid settlement money on substance use treatment programs isn’t being transparent about how it will do that.

A box containing two bottles of Narcan, the nasal spray helps reverse an opioid overdose. [Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau]
That group has filed a lawsuit to force the OneOhio Recovery Foundation to share more information about how that money will be parceled out.

The OneOhio Recovery Foundation was set up by the state in 2020 to pay for substance use recovery, treatment, and prevention programs. Just over half of the $808 million settlement will go to the OneOhio Recovery Foundation for 18 years. Local governments get 30% of the settlement, and the state gets 15%.

Dennis Cauchon, president of Harm Reduction Ohio, said the OneOhio Recovery Foundation Board isn’t following the state’s open meetings law, and while he said he thinks the 29 members now on the board mean well, this new bureaucratic entity could lead to future problems.

 

[thegreenhand]

I've met some of the people at Harm Reduction Ohio before and they definitely are an incredible organization. hopefully they can get some transparency from the state govt on this issue

 

[thegreenhand]

@neversickanymore this may interest you. i know you wanted to track the money from all these lawsuits

 

[neversickanymore]

For sure.. I knew that all that cash was going temp and get diverted by greedy politicians or greedy health care administrators.

 

[neversickanymore]

29 people on the board?.. they should be required to be completely open and we need to scrutinize what they are all doing with all these payouts