12/ Speaking of the project team... Compiling this database is a massive, year-long undertaking that involved more than a dozen people. Big thanks to everyone listed below, including Kristen Pendergrass, Abigail Winiker, Lydia Zuraw, and several others.

5/ Bre Dolan, an EMT in WV who's in recovery, said officers are “good men and women" who "care about seeing their community recover." But it's unfair to expect them to tackle the root causes of addiction. She’d like money to support social workers & foster kids from a young age.

I'm excited to be a part of the @who.int Africa Region's webinar this Wednesday discussing key solutions any country can implement for #WorldSuicidePreventionDay. I'll be presenting on how media and journalists can play a role. It's free for all. Please join.

Zoom: lnkd.in/gAmTW8aM

9/ Some examples come from recent weeks, like NJ lawmakers giving hospitals $45m in settlement funds to shield them from federal Medicaid cuts. Advocates, who protested with a die-in, said the move betrays people with substance use disorders whom the money was meant to serve.

8/ In the absence of AG oversight, researchers and advocates have created a tool to empower the public to track and report potential misuse themselves. It's a crowdsourced database, with over 150 entries already.
opioidpolicy.org/osm-accounta...

7/ Torsch wishes the focus wasn’t just on winning more money but also ensuring existing settlement dollars are spent well.

“This is blood money," she said. It can’t make up for the lives lost, but “we do want to make sure that it’s going to count.”

‪Very excited to present @IRE_NICAR next month with @edmahon.bsky.social‬ & Drew Hawkins! We'll be sharing 60 rapid-fire ideas for stories on opioid settlement money & public health topics in 60 minutes. You'll walk away with inspiration for quick turns, features & investigations.

7/ In this article, we also published a database showing how much money state and local governments nationwide have received and expect in future years -- thanks to the work of
Henry Larweh, Lydia Zuraw, @hackwriter.bsky.social. Check it out to see how much your government is in line for.

6/ “They’re getting millions of dollars,” Julian said. “They could do something for these families that have suffered great losses.”

What a day. Started out by walking past the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this morning and seeing these crazy long lines of staff waiting to get in. Turns out, many of them were notified that they were on leave or let go right around that time.

Octane is sharing some of the materials they're creating for the public awareness campaign.

Now there's a presentation from Octane, a public relations firm that is heading up a public media campaign to raise awareness about addiction and resources in the city.

We're moving on to a presentation from DC Fire and EMS on their response to the addiction crisis.

Here is an overview slide about how much opioid settlement money the city has received and granted out:

Today I'm attending the DC Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission's first meeting of 2025. This is the group that oversees millions of DC's #opioidsettlement dollars and suggests how the money should be used to address the #addiction and #overdose crisis.

5/ On the other end of the spectrum, less than 0.5% of all funds spent/committed went to treatments for babies exposed to substances in the womb. A staffer at one nursery dedicated to such children called them the “forgotten victims of the epidemic.”

4/ That helped people like John Greene, who received counseling and medications for opioid use disorder through a settlement-funded program in central New York. He’s now four months into recovery — his longest stint since he started regularly using drugs at 14.