Swain mulls what to do with opioid settlement funds
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As fiscal year 2024-2025 begins, North Carolina’s county governments are receiving their third installment of the Opioid Settlement Fund. This year, Swain County received $236,111.
In 2021, multiple state attorneys general, including North Carolina AG Josh Stein, sued opioid manufacturers and distributors. Every state involved in that lawsuit received a portion of the settlement money they could use however they deemed fit.
According to Russ Harris, executive director of the Southwestern Commission, North Carolina was one of the first states that gave local governments a portion of the settlement and allowed them to spend it how they saw fit.
“The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners led the charge to say, ‘This money should come local because local people know what the problems are and what our assets are to deal with those problems,’” Harris said.
North Carolina distributed 85% of the settlement money back to the counties. The seven westernmost counties, which the Southwestern Commission oversees, received $35 million total, and Swain County received $3.3 million.
Counties will receive the money in installations over 18 years. According to Harris, this is a unique opportunity for counties to learn as they go.
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“It gives a county the opportunity to decide what they want to do this year and then one year from now they can say, ‘We don’t feel like that’s working,’ and they can change course,” Harris said. “Normally you get a grant, you tell them what you’re going to do, and that’s what you’re going to do. You don’t have that opportunity to course correct over time.”
To ensure money was being spent the best it could, the counties sought support in planning from the Southwestern Commission. The commission worked with a hired consultant from OMNI Institute to devise a plan that could help each county decide what would be the best course of action.
The first phase of developing a plan was research. The commission worked to gather data about the number of overdoses and emergency room visits related to opioids. Then they moved to stakeholder interviews, focus groups and surveys. Finally, they gathered county staff to share their results and ask counties what they wanted to prioritize.
“We have this regional level of information, but then we’ve also gone down to every county and worked with them individually to say, ‘What are your priorities?’” Harris said. “Everything starts local and so we gathered regional-level information and county-level and local information.”
All the research findings have been put into a document that will guide counties as they begin to make plans for the settlement money. According to Harris, this document will be presented in August.
Outside of the upcoming presentation, counties are required to meet annually to discuss the settlements. Harris met with the Swain County Board of Commissioners to fulfill this requirement. Harris presented the different options the board would have to utilize this money.
According to Harris, there’s two ways the money can be spent, option A or option B.
“Option A are 12 strategies proven to work and if you choose those, you’re pretty much ready to go immediately. If you choose option B, they’re a little more outside the box, you will have to additional planning and prove that it’s needed and that you think it will work before you can start doing that,” Harris said.
According to morepowerfulnc.org, option A consists of collaborative strategic planning, evidence-based addiction treatment, recovery support services, recovery housing support, employment-related services, early intervention, naloxone distribution, post-overdose response team, syringe service program, criminal justice diversion programs, addiction treatment for incarcerated persons and reentry programs.
Harris said counties in the southwest region that have chosen their priorities so far have chosen recovery support, naloxone distribution and post-overdose response teams.
Swain and many other counties have not yet cemented priorities and have chosen to continue additional planning to create a better strategy. Harris and his team will continue to do further research for those counties until they have a better idea of how to proceed.
According to Harris, there’s no legal timeline to spend the money, however the desire for action amongst citizens can create a social pressure for the government to make choices.
