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The opioid settlement agreement spells out how funds are to be used: “help bring desperately needed relief to communities impacted by opioids by supporting treatment, recovery support, harm reduction.”

Dare County Board of Commissioners approved the 2026 budget for using Dare County’s estimated share of the settlement agreement: $6,437,093 from 2023 to 2039.

The next fiscal year will see a total of $383,700 in settlement money distributed in Dare County in these categories:

Recovery Court Case Manager – $115,000

Peer Support Specialist – $71,400

Naloxone/Test Strips for Community Distribution – $65,300

Dare County Detention Center – $60,000

Treatment – $60,000

Social Determinants of Health – $12,000.

Nationwide, “30,000 fewer drug overdose deaths occurred in 2024 than the year before – the largest one-year decline ever recorded,” reports Associated Press.

Provisional figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that 80,000 people died from overdoses in 2024, a 27% reduction from 2023.

The Associated Press article mentions several possible factors for the reduction: the availability of overdose-reversing naloxone, expanded treatment options, the impact of opioid settlement money, shifts in how people use drugs and the shrinking number of at-risk Americans.

The recommendation on the spending categories was made by the Saving Lives Task Force represented at the meeting by Roxanna Ballinger and Wally Overman. Go to bit.ly/4mgOqPg to view slides from the presentation.

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