How should NJ spend its share of national opioid settlement funds? / NJ Spotlight / June 3, 2025
By Lilo H. Stainton
Safe housing, as a foundation for a healthier life. Transportation to substance use treatment, support and job programs. Support for families who have lost loved ones to the opioid epidemic. Funding for grassroots programs proven to save lives. Sustainable employment for people in recovery.
Money from New Jersey’s share of the national opioid settlement should be focused on these priorities, not on law enforcement and incarceration, say advocates who have direct experience with people who use illegal substances. They would also like to see the state create an office of recovery to oversee and coordinate these efforts.
These advocates joined together to form the New Jersey Opioid Settlement Advocacy Group, which in May released an updated version of its opens in a new window“spending roadmap” to help shape the state’s use of this money over the years to come. Now the group wants to spread the word about the road map and encourage county and local governments to use it as a guide to invest in programs and strategies to reduce drug-related fatalities and support people in recovery.
“This is not about us [as an advocacy group]. This is about becoming a huge community that works together,” said Tonia Ahern, a group member who is active in multiple recovery and support organizations. Ahern, who lost her son to a fatal overdose in July of 2021, joined other grassroots advocates last week to highlight the new road map.
New Jersey will receive $1.18 billion over 18 years, the result of several multistate court settlements with opioid makers and distributors who were found to have failed to properly protect communities from their highly addictive pharmaceuticals. Half of the settlement money is controlled by the state, while the other half will go to the 21 counties and about 250 municipalities.
‘Pressure to get it right’
“This payout can be a lot of money for a community. opens in a new windowBut it’s not infinite. It’s a one-time investment. So there’s a lot of pressure to get it right,” Aneri Pattani, a reporter with the health care policy organization KFF, told WAMU 88.5, a radio station run by American University in Washington, D.C. Nationwide, the settlements top $50 billion, she said, and the agreements require that 85% of the money go to services that benefit those directly impacted by opioid abuse, although there is significant leeway and limited oversight.
New Jersey created an advisory council — a mix of advocates, program leaders and agency officials — now helping to guide disbursement of the state’s share of the payout. Last fall the council released a opens in a new windowplan that called for using nearly $96 million to fund harm reduction services like supplying people with clean needles to limit infection and the opioid-reversal agent naloxone, or Narcan, plus treatment programs, housing options and additional support services.
For the local shares of the settlement, many counties and municipalities have also sought public input on their spending and a handful have created detailed spending plans, according to opens in a new windowannual reports filed with the state. Others say they still plan to do so. Some have yet to spend any of this money.
‘It’s important to get these funds into the right hands.’ — Mike Santillo, Prevention Links, a recovery program based in Union County
Grassroots advocates say they want the funding used effectively, but also efficiently. They also want organizations working on the front lines to have input in the process and access to these funds to support their own work using strategies like harm reduction and peer counseling that have proven to save lives and help people maintain their recovery.
“We don’t want people who are out there doing this great work to feel they are alone out there,” said Elizabeth Burke Beaty, the founder and president of Sea Change, a recovery and harm reduction organization in Ocean County. Sea Change has a contract with Ocean County to provide peer recovery services and other supports, using funding from the settlement.
How some towns are spending the funds
Other communities are investing in programs that also appear to align with the goals outlined by the grassroots advocates in their road map. Atlantic City committed $1.5 million to address substance use among people who are homeless, according to its 2024 spending report. East Orange said it distributed hundreds of naloxone kits at community events over the past year. Bridgeton City, in Cumberland County, trained emergency responders to help people who are homeless connect with treatment and other services, it reported.
“It’s important to get these funds into the right hands,” said Mike Santillo, chief operating officer at Prevention Links, a recovery program based in Union County, those working “on the ground with direct impact on the streets.” Santillo moderated a webinar on Thursday at which members of the New Jersey Opioid Settlement Advocacy Group spoke about their road map.
‘If deaths due to opioid overdoses are going down it’s because of the work people are doing out there to change things.’ — Divad Sanders, leader Newark Community Street Team
Not all governments share the advocates’ priorities, it appears. Lindenwold, in Camden County, said it will invest in a mobile trailer with video games and an external TV, which will be used to broadcast anti-drug programs. Morris County’s East Hannover is using some of its settlement funds to offset opioid-related costs for the police and other agencies; it also spent $3,850 to install tinted windows at the police department to increase privacy for officers and prisoners, according to its report.
Ken Musgrove, director of recovery support at CIC for Prevention and Recovery, in Bernardsville, said the settlement funding is supposed to be for innovative programs that are proven to work. Investment decisions should always include input from those with lived experience of addiction or direct knowledge of treatment and recovery programs, he said in the webinar.
“It’s not supposed to supplant current spending,” Musgrove said. “We believe the voice of recovery should be active on all policy issues.”
People are still dying
Drug-related deaths have started to decline in New Jersey — and nationwide — after nearly a decade of trending upward, but some 2,800 people were confirmed to have died from illicit substances in 2023, the year for which opens in a new windowthe most recent state data is available. The progress is not universal, however, with the rate of fatalities still far greater among Black and Hispanic residents than among white residents.
“If deaths due to opioid overdoses are going down it’s because of the work people are doing out there to change things,” said Divad Sanders, leader of the overdose prevention program with the Newark Community Street Team, which has expanded the reach of harm reduction in the state’s largest city. “And not enough people know the work we’re doing is making a difference.”
— Graphic by Genesis Obando