$43M opioid settlement spending bill expected in House Thursday

The Alabama House is expected to vote today on how to spend more than $43 million from the state’s opioid settlement fund.

House Bill 487 distributes the funds among substance abuse prevention and recovery efforts, mental health initiatives and law enforcement.

Since 2023, Attorney General Steve Marshall has announced more than $305 million in settlement money to the state from drugmakers over their role in the opioid epidemic. The Opioid Settlement Oversight Commission, which includes lawmakers, state agency leaders and medical experts, holds regular hearings to determine how to best use those funds.

Outside this year’s allocation, $81 million has been distributed since 2023. More than $56 million has gone to the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Hazel Green, is the sponsor of the bill targeting prevention, treatment and recovery services.

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“We are really seeing great outcomes from the work these providers and education partners are doing in Alabama,” Reynolds told Alabama Daily News. “Also glad to see our district attorney’s and sheriff’s programs doing great work through our counties.”

The newest bill spreads the money across a dozen agencies and departments:

• Alabama Department of Mental Health, $26.3 million
• Administrative Office of Courts for Specialty Courts, $3 million
• District attorneys, $2.1 million
• Child advocacy centers: $2.1 million
• University of Alabama at Birmingham, $2 million
• Alabama Department of Corrections: $1 million
• Auburn University, $1.9 million
• Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, $1.5 million
• USA Health University of South Alabama, $1.1 million
• Office of Prosecution Services, $1.1 million
• Alabama Department of Senior Services, $500,000
• Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, $450,000

The bill breaks down how mental health’s $26.3 million will be spent: $8.93 million for drug abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery grants; $4 million for the state’s 988 Crisis Line; $7.5 million for civil commitment beds; $2 million toward the state’s match for federal Medicaid funding; $1 million for residential detox treatment; $1 million to purchase Naloxone, a nasal spray that can reverse opioid overdoses; $1.3 million for the continuation of the statewide marketing campaign; $500,000 for adolescent substance abuse treatment; and $130,000 for medical medicine education by the Alabama Society of Addiction Medicine.

This story is from aldailynews.com.