Potential For Opioid Settlement Money To Fund Treatment: What You Need To Know

Billions of dollars are expected to flow into Pennsylvania to help fight the opioid epidemic.

Settlement Money ( Photo: National Institute of Health (NIH) )

How much money will Pennsylvania receive from settling opioid lawsuits?

The attorney general’s office said the state would receive more than $2.2 billion from various investigations and lawsuits. A spokeswoman for the agency declined to provide a detailed breakdown of how the agency arrived at that number. Funding comes from a variety of sources, and the Attorney General’s Office describes them in waves.

The deal earned the state about $130 million last year according to Tom Van Kirk, chairman of the state’s Opioid Trust.

How can people track local government opioid arbitration spending?

It may be helpful to obtain information from your local government pursuant to Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Act. Staff from the Community Education Group, an advocacy group focused on public health issues, searched meeting minutes, county government websites, and local news articles to track various discussions and plans.

There are several ways to influence this process. Jordan Scott, Regional Field Organizer for the Pennsylvania Harm Reduction Network serves as a member of a regional task force that assesses community needs and attends regional meetings where decisions are made.

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