2 days ago
New Jersey issues new guidance on national opioid settlement spending
A Reach NJ poster along Pacific Ave. in Atlantic City on Feb. 13, 2023. (Daniella Heminghaus for New Jersey Monitor)
A state panel on Thursday issued a five-year strategic plan advising New Jersey communities how to spend over $1 billion in national opioid settlement funds they're expected to receive over the next decade and a half.
The plan comes as an escalating court fight over two 'opioid awareness concerts' in Irvington shows such guidance may be overdue.
Investigators from the state comptroller's office have raised concerns about fraud, misuse of money and contract and ethical improprieties after Irvington paid nearly $370,000 in opioid settlement funds in 2023 and 2024 to two entertainment companies — both tied to a township employee — that ran the concerts, according to a defamation lawsuit Irvington filed in April. The comptroller's office was set to release a report on investigators' findings when the township sued to block its release.
The state's strategic plan announced Thursday — drafted by an advisory council convened in 2023 — offered no definitive answers on whether drug awareness concerts are an acceptable use of settlement funds. Instead, the council said spending should be evaluated on an array of metrics to ensure it is 'data-driven and equity-focused.'
The settlement funds come from pharmaceutical companies and others that helped fuel the opioid crisis, and the settlement agreements arose from separate claims by states and local governments. The state of New Jersey and its local governments will each get about half of the more than $1.1 billion in funding expected to flow to New Jersey through 2038.
Thursday's plan is intended to guide the disbursement of the state's share of settlement funds, 'though hopefully it will prove a helpful tool for subdivision decision-making,' said Tom Hester, a state Department of Human Services spokesman.
'The state does not provide legal advice nor approve or deny local proposals related to subdivision settlement funds. Subdivisions are encouraged to review the national and state subdivision agreements for guidance on how these funds may be used,' he said.
County and municipal officials must publicly report each year how they spend settlement funds, which began disbursing in 2022.
Some reported that they haven't started spending yet. But those that have invested in things like direct services to people struggling with addiction, drug-awareness school assemblies and community events, and Narcan training and supplies for government employees.
The reports give a snapshot of the various ways officials have spent funds, including:
Union County paid for transportation to treatment centers, with the goal of removing that barrier to recovery.
Salem County used some funds to build up its overdose fatality review team.
Paterson spent part of its distribution on medication-assisted treatment.
Middlesex County spent some on 'go bags' — filled with Narcan, drug-testing strips, addiction treatment information, and more — to give people discharged from the county jail.
Irvington was the only municipality that used its funds to host concerts, according to the filings. Berkeley Township reported that it shared educational materials on safe medication disposal and drug drop box locations at an annual scheduled summer concert series — but did not spend settlement funds to do so.
In Irvington's 2024 filing, township officials reported that Irvington has received almost $1.1 million in settlement funds since 2022.
They reported that they opted to host the opioid awareness concerts after doing 'internal research on the benefits and effectiveness of concerts and festivals in making the community and stakeholders (aware of) the impact of opioid use and misuse.' They did not engage the public to help decide how to use the funds, have a strategic plan, complete a risk assessment for demographic or geographic impact or measure key performance indicators to track the success or impact of the spending, according to their filings.
Local officials unsure what would be sanctioned uses of opioid settlement funds 'should seek legal advice from their own counsel and/or guidance from their respective County Advisory Council,' said Allison Inserro, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office.
The strategic plan recommends that officials plotting how to spend settlement funds should prioritize harm reduction services, addiction treatment and social services that fix problems, like housing insecurity, that can impede recovery.
Its overarching goals are to reduce overdose deaths, remove barriers to treatment and build 'a robust monitoring and evaluation framework' to track the funds' impact and ensure accountability, according to a Department of Human Services announcement.
Overdose deaths have fallen in New Jersey since an epidemic high of 3,171 in 2022, with 2,816 overdose fatalities reported in 2023, 1,813 in 2024, and 490 so far this year, state data shows. Health officials largely have credited harm reduction efforts for the decline.
The state already has allocated at least $120 million of the funds it has received. State officials announced last year that $95 million would support housing, harm reduction and mobile units to deliver medication-assisted treatment and $25 million would go toward free legal services for people struggling with addiction, an initiative to reduce teenage addiction and emergency response needs like xylazine-testing kits to reduce misuse of a horse sedative known as 'tranq' or 'zombie drugs.'
Human Services Commissioner Sarah Adelman chairs the advisory council that issued the strategic plan Thursday.
'While no amount of settlement payments can undo the harm and human toll of the opioid crisis, we can and must ensure New Jersey uses the funding wisely to help our residents and communities recover,' Adelman said in a statement.
Hundreds of people who have struggled with addiction shared their thoughts with the advisory council, resulting in a 'strong plan that prioritizes evidence-based harm reduction, treatment, and recovery services,' she said.
Late last month, a state appeals judge granted Irvington's request to block the comptroller's office from releasing its findings on the drug awareness concerts.
The office already had given early copies, as is its practice, to Gov. Phil Murphy, Senate President Nick Scutari, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin. So last week, Judge Mark K. Chase made an unusual move — he extended the injunction to them, forbidding 'any government entity or official' from distributing the comptroller's report on Irvington any further.
Irvington's attorneys have complained that state investigators did not let them adequately respond to their findings.
In a brief filed last week, they wrote that the report 'reads like a ham-handed and overly-broad Drew Pearson serial with an accusatory purpose.' They warned that it threatens to irreparably harm the township's reputation, endanger vendor contracts, hurt the township's ability to carry out public health initiatives, and erode the trust of state and federal officials who interact with the township.
'All of those harms would be especially pernicious in Irvington, a predominantly Black and minority community, which has historically faced discrimination in oversight and in governance,' the attorneys wrote.
But Friday afternoon, the comptroller's office snagged a win.
Chase denied Irvington's injunction request, calling the matter moot because the report had already been released to
Murphy and top legislative leaders.
Besides, the comptroller's office had given the township 15 days to respond to its draft report, Chase added. Officials 'failed to do so. They now complain of the contents of the report,' the judge wrote.
He gave Irvington until 4 p.m. Monday to ask the state Supreme Court for relief, saying his stay on the report's release should remain in place until then.
But, the judge added, 'any further suppression of OSC's report hinders its statutory mandate and oversight role, and directly harms the public interest.'
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