Wisconsin To Spend Its Opioid Settlement Payment of More Than $500M on Drug Testing and Overdose-Reversal Drugs
Wisconsin, which has received its first $6 million in opioid settlement payments expected to total more than $500 million over many years, plans to spend much of the initial money boosting the distribution of fentanyl testing strips and the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, or Narcan.
Other priorities for $31 million in settlement funds expected this year include expanding addiction treatment centers, supporting Native American tribes hit hard by opioid deaths, paying for residential treatment stays and increasing substance use prevention education in K-12 schools, according to a state Department of Health Services plan before the Legislature’s budget committee. The panel has until Aug. 16 to weigh in.
The plan “identifies key areas where additional funding is needed to enhance our efforts to help people all across Wisconsin with opioid use disorder and to prevent future misuse, overdoses and deaths,” DHS Secretary Karen Timberlake said in a media briefing Monday.
