How will Utah spend its opioid settlement funds?

SALT LAKE CITY — Imagine someone breaking into your house, vandalizing it and taking over $50,000 worth of your belongings. Imagine they continued to do that over the course of 10 years, and then there was a legal settlement where the criminals said they would give you back $50 to take care of the damage.

That's how Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful, described the impact of the recent opioid settlements in Utah and across the country.

"I'm glad we got the money, but this is not recompense for what has been done, or what continues to happen," said Ward, who is a medical doctor by trade, adding that opioid deaths continue to rise across the United States.

Payouts are distributed over a long period of time. For example, the most recent settlement involving Teva, Allergan, CVS and Walgreens will give Utah $209 million over the next 15 years.

Half of each payout is distributed between Utah's 29 counties for prevention and treatment purposes. The other 50% is retained by the state, which the Utah Legislature is tasked with budgeting out.

In this most recent general session, lawmakers focused on several key areas to allocate funds to, including:

• Receiving centers where drug users can get through withdrawal and receive treatment.
• Implementation of medication-assisted treatment, which uses medications with counseling and behavioral therapy to help treat opioid addiction.
• Community health centers.
• Upstream prevention programs in schools to help young people see the dangers of opioid use.
• Department of Health and Human Services-sponsored public service announcements and other resources.
• Housing support for recovering addicts.
• State Medical Examiner's Office investigations into opioid-related deaths.

"We're truly trying to use this money to mitigate the harms that have been created by opioid misuse," said Brent Kelsey, director of the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. "We're focused on keeping the money directed at prevention, treatment and recovery support strategies that will really result in healthier communities."

The latest settlement budget will go into effect July 1, the start of the 2024 fiscal year. It will stay in effect for three years, until June 30, 2026, with continual reevaluations.

"We'll be making recommendations as we go forward about what's working and what new needs have emerged," Kelsey said. "It's a fluid process for sure."

Sen. Jen Plumb, D-Salt Lake City, also a medical doctor, is adamant about ensuring the opioid payout doesn't get funneled into other senators' "pet projects" or go toward other agencies' agendas.

"These (funds) are representative of people's loved ones that are lost. These are dead family members," Plumb said. "These are coming to us on the backs of what pharma companies and distributor companies did that resulted in deaths."

As a result, Plumb said the main question legislators need to be asking themselves is this: "How do we ensure that we're being responsible stewards for these really valuable and precious funds?"

Part of that responsibility involves including a wide range of input. Plumb serves on an opioid settlement advisory committee as part of the Utah Opioid Task Force. Her committee surveyed members of the public, first responders and law enforcement to gain insights on where resources are needed. They used the results of that survey to create a blueprint for funding.

The committee itself is also made up of 17 members whose expertise ranges from law enforcement and the legal system to public health, medication-assisted treatment and lived experience with substance abuse.

Related:

Opioid task force voices concerns over increased overdoses, new substances

The Utah Opioid Task Force expressed concerns Tuesday about increased deaths statewide and the recent appearance of mixed substances appearing in drugs.

"The goals are to decrease or ameliorate the harm of the opioid crisis, as well as prevent future harm," Plumb said.

The funds are spread so thinly that Ward worries it will be hard to see an impact.

"It's going to be very difficult to even tell if we're making anything better with the amount of money in these programs," Ward admitted. "I'll be surprised if we can directly show that there's improvement from this money that we're spending on these programs."

As legislative committees continually reevaluate the use of opioid funding, Plumb encourages Utahns to give feedback to their representatives.

"If they are seeing things that they feel like aren't being addressed, or that they feel like should be addressed differently, they should use their voices," Plumb said. "The policy process is not always as informed as it needs to be, so their voices do matter."

"We are having to get these settlement funds because too many Utahns were lost, and those are our family members," Plumb added. "We should all speak up and say what we think is important."

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