Are Opioid Settlement Funds Really Being Used to Treat Addiction?

Across Oklahoma, families who’ve lost loved ones to opioids are now asking what happened to the hundreds of millions of dollars meant to fight the addiction crisis that took their children. The state has received more than $900 million in opioid settlement money, part of payouts totalling $50 billion nationwide payout. But years later, several families told reporters at KOSU they have no idea where that money is going.

Diane Searle is among them. Her 19-year-old daughter, Jillian, died from an overdose in 2018. “She’s absolutely beautiful and she never really thought she was,” Searle said. “She had a great sense of humor… She loved animals. She loved her siblings.” 

After Jillian’s passing, Searle founded Families Supporting Families, to help other moms in Tulsa cope with the loss of their children to addiction. Beyond offering members emotional and legal support, the group distributes harm-reduction supplies and raises overdose awareness through education at local schools and with billboards.

Advocates like Searle believe that opioid settlement funds should only be used to raise awareness, support addiction prevention, and provide rehabilitative treatment. A first step would be transparency from the state as to how opioid settlement funds are being spent. “It should be public knowledge,” Searle said. “My kid died from opiates… so we should have public knowledge of what you’re spending it on.”

So far, it’s known that $68.5 million has been paid to private attorneys working on the state’s litigation, and nearly $200 million earmarked for Oklahoma State University’s National Center for Wellness and Recovery. Lawmakers also used tens of millions to fill state budget gaps, including $24,000 in unrestricted funds to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which the agency applied to Medicaid expenditures. But Searle said that communities need “better rehabs that people can stay in for a longer time to get the help they need.” Trying to find treatment for Jillian, in Searle’s telling, was a heartbreaking cycle of waitlists and confusion.

Only adding to frustration is knowledge of Oklahoma’s Opioid Abatement Board. The body has the authority to distribute settlement funds, but was candidly described as “a do-nothing board” by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, in the wake of years of inactivity and swath of resignations. But last year, the board finally began awarding grants, roughly $12 million worth, though a full list of recipients is still not available. In August, the board approved another round of grants, totalling $16.6 million, to be distributed to Oklahoma’s schools, cities, counties, and public trusts. The board has also partnered with Steadman Group, a Colorado-based consulting firm, to help track grantee performance.

“It became the natural next thing to make sure we had a good way to track everything and track long-term outcomes,” said Kelly Dunn, a member of the Opioid Abatement Board. One of the directors at Steadman Group, JK Costello, went on to explain how the firm will launch public dashboards to increase transparency and accountability. They are due to be online by later this fall. “There will be reports for each grantee,” Costello said, as well as “an overall report that collates all that data to a more public-facing report that summarizes everything from what’s been reported, what hasn’t been reported, what we [still] need.”

The board doesn’t give to nonprofits like FSF, but Searle continues to meet other parents to advocate and grieve together. “It’s one of those groups that you don’t want to see grow,” she said. “But we’re there for the families and we do whatever we can for them.”