NJ Advocates Demand Oversight After Opioid Funds Misspent
New spending reports released Thursday show New Jersey state, county, and municipal officials spent opioid settlement funds on bounce houses, DJs, dirt bike demonstrations, ice cream events, graduation parties, and other questionable items instead of core addiction treatment and prevention priorities. The $60 million spent over the past year is part of $1.1 billion New Jersey will receive through 2038 from drug manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies to resolve opioid lawsuits. Harm reduction advocates, including the New Jersey Organizing Project and Sea Change Recovery Community, are calling for tighter oversight, pointing to prior criticism from the former state comptroller and attorney general over similar misuse, including a $45 million diversion to hospitals facing federal Medicaid cuts. Municipalities were singled out as the "worst offenders" of stretching definitions of prevention and treatment barriers to justify spending.
State Medicaid and public health officials face mounting pressure to impose accountability standards on settlement dollars that advocates argue are being diverted from addiction treatment, housing, and recovery services that directly support Medicaid-covered populations.
Behavioral Health · Finance
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