Trouble in NY: Opioid settlement money in danger of being co‐opted

Abstract

The New York legislature took steps to make sure that the opioid settlement money did not suffer the same fate as the Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry and the states, in which the money which was supposed to go to treatment for tobacco‐related diseases went instead into the states' general treasuries. The legislature guaranteed that an independent advisory board would make recommendations on how the opioid settlement money would be spent. But the first batch of that money, $208 million, appears to be disappearing into a state‐run secret system in which the advisory board is being shafted.