N.J. using millions from opioid settlement to expand support for people in recovery

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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday unveiled what he described as a historic effort to combat the opioid crisis in the Garden State.

During a visit to the North Jersey Community Research Initiative, Murphy said over the next three years, more than $95 million will be invested into a range of evidence-based strategies to expand care and support individuals in recovery.

“The funding is not coming from the pockets of New Jersey’s taxpayers. Instead, this funding is actually coming from settlement payments we are receiving from the opioid industry itself,” he said.

In 2022, New Jersey began receiving money from a major nationwide litigation settlement that holds opioid manufacturers, distributors, and retailers accountable for creating and fueling the opioid epidemic, by aggressively marketing prescription opioids while downplaying their risks.

New Jersey will receive over $1 billion in total settlement funds, which will be allotted over the next 14 years.

The governor said the money will be used to expand harm reduction centers and community peer recovery centers, as well as medication-assisted treatment programs, a program focused on keeping families together during drug recovery and expanded housing assistance for individuals with substance abuse disorders.

“Expanding support for our neighbors struggling with addiction, rather than throwing them behind bars saves lives, and improves community health more broadly,” said Murphy.

Sarah Adelman, the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services said the fight against the opioid epidemic touches her personally.

“I have lived every day of my life impacted by addiction, as the daughter of someone who struggled with substance use and for years with opioid use disorder, until I lost them from complications from addiction,” she said.

She said as a child and a caregiver, “I have experienced the hope and devastation that comes with the high and low points of that journey, and I have witnessed and felt acutely the impacts of stigma and shame that take their toll and rob people of their dignity, it is heartbreaking.”

“It’s not right,” said Adelman, “and it is so much worse knowing there are many people in the healthcare industry who perpetuated this crisis for profit.”