News Opioid Settlement Money Is Coming, and Two Ohio Counties Differ on Ways to Use It

[thegreenhand]

Opioid Settlement Money Is Coming, and Two Ohio Counties Differ on Ways to Use It​

Erin Mulvaney
Wall Street Journal
13 Feb 2022

Excerpts:

U.S. cities and counties spent years battling the pharmaceutical industry over the opioid crisis. Now that billions of dollars in settlement funds are beginning to flow, the experiences of two Ohio counties highlight a new challenge: how to spend the money.

Many state and local governments are starting to receive funds from national legal settlements expected to total roughly $50 billion over the next two decades. Cleveland-based Cuyahoga County and neighboring Summit County, where Akron is located, got a head start.

Cuyahoga, which has about 1.3 million residents, saw a 222% increase in drug overdose deaths from 2007 to 2017, the year the county filed suit. By that time, it was averaging close to two deaths a day.

Officials there have moved quickly to implement plans to spend the roughly $125 million they have on hand, with more than half already designated for a new treatment center meant to divert people with drug addiction and mental illness away from the county jail.

Summit County, home to about 540,000 residents, said in its lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies that it had experienced a surge in overdoses so rapid that the county medical examiner brought in mobile trailers to handle the spillover. It has taken a slower approach than its neighbor, spending just over $7 million so far of the $104 million it has available.

“We have money, and that’s new to us,” said Greta Johnson, chief of staff for Summit County’s executive office. “It’s a full-time job to spend money of this size. We don’t want to dump it all in one place and are avoiding the temptation of letting it burn a hole in our pocket.”

 

[thegreenhand]

interesting report that highlights what is gonna begin to unfold all across the united states.

personally i think the 50 bed inpatient center that cleveland opted for is not the best use of money. at least not initially. 50 beds in a rehab won't stop drug use. that needs to be accepted as a reality and then use the money to offer comprehensive drug checking, i.e., free GC/MS.

in addition, we need safe supply. hydromorphone (or fentanyl...) would probably work best. but at a minimumn we need more bupre access. once methadone take home is allowed, expand that too.

 

[OpiateKiller]

interesting report that highlights what is gonna begin to unfold all across the united states.

personally i think the 50 bed inpatient center that cleveland opted for is not the best use of money. at least not initially. 50 beds in a rehab won't stop drug use. that needs to be accepted as a reality and then use the money to offer comprehensive drug checking, i.e., free GC/MS.

in addition, we need safe supply. hydromorphone (or fentanyl...) would probably work best. but at a minimumn we need more bupre access. once methadone take home is allowed, expand that too.

Pharmaceutical diacetylmorphine sites, 3x daily injection covered by insurance sounds good to me

 

[OpiateKiller]

They've created quite the dystopia in America it's about time we have access to lab grade drugs legally.

 

[OpiateKiller]

Personally that money should be used as grants to rehabs for addicts, money to families of those with evidence they were wrongly prescribed leading to death, more rehabs / detoxes, more AA/NA meeting halls..