Michigan will receive $1.6 billion dollars from legal settlements with companies that made or sold opioids. Part of that money is going directly to local governments across the state to address opioid addiction.
According to data from the state, Ingham County will receive more than $14 million dollars from that fund.
In November of 2022, the county formed the Ingham County Opioid Litigation Advisory Panel to advise the board of commissioners on programing and initiatives for the use of opioid settlement funds.
“We are going to be working on in the next couple of months trying to get a handle on how much every year we can expect to receive so that we can have a stable source of funding for as long as possible,” said Todd Tennis, county commissioner and member of the advisory panel.
Since the opioid epidemic began, hundreds of people in Ingham County have lost their lives to opioid overdoes. While the county can use the funds from these settlements to backfill the losses that local agency paid to treat and deal with the opioid epidemic, the county has decided not go in that direction.
“We've decided to put these funds where we think they will be better used and that is prevention and treatment and recovery programs,” said Tennis.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Michigan Opioid Advisory commission, an overwhelming number of respondents believe the state settlement funds should be directed back to community. Most respondents believe the funding should be used to increase available housing for individuals suffering from substance use disorders.
According to Tennis, the county's present shortcomings in tackling the disorders include insufficient long-term treatment bed availability and inadequate harm reduction efforts.
“We want to have more capacity to provide longer term treatment, enhancing some of our harm reduction efforts,” he said. “Which essentially means trying to prevent fatalities, so that people who are suffering from substance use disorder have time to get into treatment, be connected with treatment, and work towards their own recovery.”
In Ingham County, the health department offers resource guides and service connections for individuals affected by substance use disorders, including facilitation training on the use of Naloxone. Naloxone is a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose.
Tennis said the county’s opioid litigation advisory panel is working on creating a request for proposals. Once that is approved, service providers and nonprofits can submit applications to use the settlement funds.
