KFF Health News (5/15) reports, “Over the past two years, rural Greene County in northeastern Tennessee has collected more than $2.7 million from regional and national settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors,” but rather than “helping people harmed by addiction, county officials are finding other ways to spend it.” This issue “is reverberating nationwide as state and local governments receive billions of dollars from companies that made, distributed, or sold opioid” analgesics. Monies received from these companies “is meant to remediate that harm.” So far, “about $3 billion has already landed in state, county, and city coffers, and about $50 billion more is expected in the coming decade and beyond.”
Related Links:
— “County with high rate of overdose deaths doesn’t use opioid settlement funds for addiction program “Aneri Pattani, KFF Health News, May 15, 2023