Delaware became the first state to vote on how to use a portion of its prescription opioid settlement distribution fund last week.
Delaware’s opioid settlement distribution fund grew to $250 million last winter, when a multistate settlement with CVS and Walgreens added more than $40 million to the total.
Last week, Delaware’s Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission voted to allocate just over $3 million to 40 service providers and other partners across the state – the first of several phases of grants the state will offer.
Attorney General Kathy Jennings told the commission last week that the vote is the first of many, and over the next several years, the state will have an opportunity to learn from its investments and adapt.
“That means that at the end of the day, when we will have expended the roughly $250 million that has come into our state, lives are saved," she said.
Lt. Governor Bethany Hall Long says the first grant recipients range from peer-led recovery house providers like Impact Life – an organization that recently received approval to open a new house in Sussex County – to municipalities that participated in the lawsuits against prescription drug distributors.
“We have the government subdivisions that are part of the lawsuits – towns like Milford and Middletown that participated," she said.
The grants will still need the approval of Delaware's Behavioral Health Consortium.
The commission also voted to begin the second grant phase, which will distribute another $12 million from the settlement fund.
Hall Long’s office will begin holding town halls to solicit public input on where to direct the second round of grants this month.
