Advocates offer roadmap for NJ’s opioid settlement funds

Advocates offer roadmap for NJ’s opioid settlement funds / NJ Spotlight / August 30, 2024

By Joanna Gagis

“Unfortunately, his drug that he chose was laced with fentanyl and he didn’t stand a chance. He was gone within seconds of the overdose. It broke our family in half,” said Arlene Brogan, a volunteer with the Not One More Campaign.

It’s hard for Brogan to talk about her younger brother, Brian Brogan, who died of an overdose last year — relapsing after years of struggling with addiction. But Aug. 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day, and with more than 2,564 New Jerseyans dying from an overdose in 2023 alone, recovery support groups are calling for change.

Elissa Tierney is with the Not One More campaign. The group has just released a second version of a roadmap for New Jersey on how to spend the opioid settlement funds coming to the state from pharmaceutical companies as part of a massive legal settlement.

“Every overdose is preventable. We would like to see these funds used for medically assisted treatment, which would be Buprenorphine and Methadone, which are evidence-based practices,” said Elissa Tierney, lead organizer for the Not One More campaign. “Harm reduction centers where people are coming in to get testing strips and syringes.”

Bob Budsock leads Integrity House in Newark, and agrees the approximately $1 billion in funds coming to the state between now and 2038 should only go to programs that are proven to reduce overdose deaths.

“What is working well is residential addiction treatment, outpatient addiction treatment, evidence-based prevention services, harm reduction services, and also ensuring that recovery supports are available. Like safe, sober, supportive recovery housing,” said Budsock. “There are some housing opportunities for individuals, but not enough.”

Other tenets of their plan discourage any programs or systems that continue the War on Drugs approach or criminalize those battling addiction. And they’re calling for innovative approaches, like overdose prevention centers, where people can safely use inside, rather than out on the street.

Brogan believes education within hospitals is necessary, to ensure that anyone treated for an overdose is immediately connected to care, rather than released to the street, which is what happened to her brother Brian. And, they’d like the council that makes the funding decisions to open its meetings to the public, so they can weigh in on the billion dollar allocation.