Daily News | Expecting more than $1 billion in opioid settlement money, Pa. grapples with policing vs. treatment
— that research has shown can reduce overdose deaths or lessen other risks.
Shapiro has continued to focus on treatment. Days after taking office as governor, he appeared on Fox News and said a strong law enforcement response is needed but the state can’t arrest its way out of the crisis. His statement called the agreement “the most significant influx of resources to our Commonwealth to address this epidemic, jet-fueled by greedy pharmaceutical companies.”In Pennsylvania, 70% goes to counties, based on a formula that guarantees a minimum of $1 million for each. Another 15% of funding goes to local governments that initiated their own litigation against companies, a category that also includes some counties. The remaining 15% goes to state lawmakers to control.
In July 2022, a court order established a trust that will oversee how counties and local governments spend their money from the Johnson & Johnson and drug distributors agreements. The order also said the trust will manage money from similar future opioid settlements. The court order establishing Pennsylvania’s opioid trust says spending must be “consistent with the requirements of Exhibit E.” Brett Hambright, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, told Spotlight PA and WESA in an email that for “uses not within Exhibit E, the subdivision must ask the trust.” If the trust determines counties and local governments spent money inappropriately, and they don’t fix the problem, the trust can cut their funding.
Exhibit E specifies some expenses related to law enforcement, such as criminal justice diversion programs and education to law enforcement about opioid-related treatment. In Lancaster County, Parsons led the working group that suggested in a written proposal to spend $275,000 out of an estimated $900,000 per year from a first allotment of opioid settlement money for “preventing drug dealers from preying on our community.” He said county officials initially believed opioid settlement money could be used for law enforcement if it was specifically directed at “reducing illegal drug supply.
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