To discover how millions in opioid settlement funds are being spent in Idaho, you can visit , which hosts 91 documents from state and local entities getting the money. This story also ran on . It can be .
Opioid manufacturers and distributors are paying more than $54 billion in restitution to settle lawsuits about their role in the overdose epidemic, with little oversight on how the money is spent. We’re tracking how state and local governments use — or misuse — the cash. What you’ll find is a lot of bureaucratese.
, these jurisdictions promising annual reports “specifying the activities and amounts” they have funded. But many of those reports remain difficult, if not impossible, for the average person to decipher. It’s a scenario playing out in a host of states.
As state and local governments begin spending , one of the loudest and most frequent questions from the public has been: Where are the dollars going? Victims of the crisis, along with their advocates and public policy experts, have repeatedly called on governments to transparently report how they’re using these funds, which many consider “blood money.” Last year, KFF Health News by Christine Minhee, founder of , that found 12 states — including Idaho — had made written commitments to publicly report expenditures on 100% of their funds in a way an average person could find and understand. (The other 38 states promised less.
) But there’s a gap between those promises and the follow-through. Thi.