What’s the plan for Augusta’s opioid settlement money?

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Fentanyl is Augusta’s number one killer for 30- to 50-year-olds, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen says last year, 100 people died from opioid overdoses, with another 85 deaths pending confirmation.

In Mayor Garnett Johnson’s State of the City address on Tuesday, he talked about how the city plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars that are already in the bank in opioid settlement money.

In two settlements over years, more than $7 million is going directly to the city.

The mayor says the problem is payments are spread across 18 years and the hundreds of thousands we do have have to be planned out carefully.

The city has almost $700,000 from the settlements, with hundreds of thousands coming in the next 18 years.

Dr. Bedder works at Augusta’s VA and as director at AU’s Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program. He says some of the most vulnerable victims of this epidemic are those in recovery.

“If you don’t treat the withdrawal, they’re going to go right back out into the street to get more drugs to treat their withdrawal,” he said.

Bedder says a solution needs to come soon, which is what Mayor Johnson is pushing for in treatment vending machines.

“Not only hotel lobbies but bars, nightclubs, anywhere where someone is perhaps experiencing a need for treatment as a result of any of these opioids,” said Mayor Johnson.

Dr. Bedder says the real solution however is long-term care.

“I think the Mayor’s idea is a good idea, but it’s only a band-aid. It’ll prevent some deaths which is great, but the core is treatment and the detox facilities. We have seen nothing from the state, we have tried to tap into some of that settlement money that’s coming in,” he said.

But with the amount coming by the year, Mayor Johnson says these machines are the best way to create an immediate dent.

“I don’t know if the settlement dollars will flow that far, based on the settlement dollars we’re getting. But if we can, and we can make it work, I’m certain and open to having that conversation,” said Mayor Johnson.

Mayor Johnson says the soonest they can get something on the agenda to move forward is sometime after March.

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