ANAHEIM, Calif. — Over the next two decades, state and local governments will receive funds from companies accused of fueling the opioid epidemic. It is all part of several nationwide lawsuits between states and pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies.
Taking a preventative approach, in Orange County, a portion of the $16 million they have received so far is going toward Narcan training and distribution.
Robin Rush, founder of the nonprofit Recovery Road, began distributing Narcan fives years ago and has now been contracted to help provide trainings across the county. She's also helped other organizations, churches and sober clubs get their own stock of the overdose reversing drug.
"It only has one purpose and one purpose only, and that's to reverse an opioid overdose or poisoning. And it's free. The state gives it to us. So why not?" Rush said in a Narcan training for community members.
The funds are part of abatement dollars coming from the portion California is getting from two national opioid settlements. In both cases, the companies settled, and in 2022, states began receiving a chunk of the combined estimated $50 billion settlements. The rest of the money is expected to be distributed over the next 18 years, with 15% of California's portions going to the state and 85% of it going to local governments.
The funds must be used on opioid remediation activities, such as the Narcan distribution and education, as Orange County is doing with their 'Fentanyl is Forever' campaign.
Behavioral Health Director in Orange County, Dr. Veronica Kelley, explains that much like the rest of the country, Orange County has seen a steady increase in opioid use in the past couple of years.
"It used to be that when people came in for treatment, their drug of choice was methamphetamine. Now their drug of choice is an opioid, whether that's heroin or Percocet, but it's some sort of an opioid," Kelley said.
In 2023, fatal overdoses peaked in United States history with 112,000 Americans dying, according to the CDC.
Kelley said they’re seeing it impact younger people as well.
"An alarming thing that we're seeing in Orange County is that for children 10 to 17, we have seen an increase in overdose deaths by about 122%," Kelley said.
Although their main focus is prevention, they’re also funding programs to help those who already have developed an opioid use disorder, like those in custody.
"Someone leaving custody has 40 times the overdose death risk as a regular person who's just walking around today. So we need to ensure that when someone is in custody and they have an opioid use disorder, we can start them on medication," Kelley said.
She said there are on average 900 inmates who use this medication. However, since the medication is not billable to an insurance, it wasn't until now that they have been able to tackle this issue using abatement dollars.
There are several other programs being funded that Kelley said she is starting to see slowly change the reality of opioid use disorder in the county.
"We are now starting to see a slight decrease, a slight decrease. So we are about 600 overdose deaths, which is still a lot, but still far from our 1,358. So we are seeing the pendulum shift a little bit. We want to ensure that it stays where it's going," Kelley said.
The awareness campaigns have also helped fight stigma that she said has prevented people from getting help in the past.
Rush, who is 14 years sober, could not agree more, sharing it's been a big shift since people used to turn her Narcan down five years ago.
"The more people we train and make feel comfortable with the facts and get rid of that stigma, the more people that will be alive to get clean and sober," Rush said.
She points to the state statistics that show 203,000 overdoses have been reversed with Narcan across California as a sign that the program is working.