NH Announces Plans To Spend $6.5M From Opioid Suits

NH Announces Plans To Spend $6.5M From Opioid Suits

Introduction

The first wave of opioid settlement funds allocated to New Hampshire will go towards programs like residential treatment and housing, peer recovery assistance, harm reduction services, and juvenile prevention initiatives.

The sum represents a portion of the tens of millions of dollars that the state has been awarded in settlements with businesses that are said to have contributed to the opioid problem.

At a time when overdose fatalities have been on the rise, state authorities have suggested giving $6.5 million in grants to 16 NGOs, healthcare institutions, and county governments to support a variety of initiatives to treat and prevent substance use in New Hampshire. The number of overdose deaths in the state last year was at least 480, which was the most since 2017.

The contracts are based on recommendations from the state's Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission and will be presented to the Executive Council for approval. Members of the Legislature, municipal politicians, and professionals from the fields of public health, addiction treatment, law enforcement, and prisons make up the panel that the Legislature established to manage the settlement monies.

The largest award, worth $875,000, will go to the New Hampshire Harm Reduction Coalition, which will use it to increase the availability of harm reduction programs throughout the state.

Dismas Home, headquartered in Manchester, would be able to expand its residential treatment and transitional housing program for women who have served time in prison with an additional $800,000. The executive director of the organization stated that they intend to increase from eight to 24 beds.

Additionally eligible for funding are numerous organizations that work to stop young people from abusing drugs. One is Derry's The Upper Room, a family resource center that will get $264,000 in funding. It intends to broaden its youth-targeted initiatives, such as assistance for students during unscheduled absences, anger management training, and substance abuse education.

The funding would also go towards a number of additional initiatives, such as those to:

• Increase peer recovery support services, particularly those for those who are involved in the criminal justice system;
• Strengthen the behavioral health workforce in New Hampshire;
• Provide transportation to drug rehab and other recovery-related services; Facilitate access to treatment, housing, and other essential services for people with substance use disorders
• Providing transitional or recovery housing, including for expectant and postpartum women. 

The money is obtained through a flurry of lawsuits filed against businesses that produced, sold, or distributed opioid medicines. Thousands of local and tribal governments, along with New Hampshire and other states, have accused these businesses of causing an opioid addiction crisis that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Over the next 20 years, according to state officials, those settlements will bring in more than $300 million for New Hampshire, of which the state has already reaped more than $40 million. All of that money needs to be used for drug addiction in some way. Once the initial grants are approved, the Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission members have stated they will open up new funding rounds.

Approximately two dozen towns, cities, and counties are also getting a direct share of the settlement money. To date, more than $6 million has been distributed to those communities, which brought their own claims against pharmaceutical firms.