New York City will receive nearly $90 million worth of opioid overdose prevention and education efforts this year funded by settlements with large pharmaceutical companies, state Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday.
The $88.9 million dedicated to the efforts — $11.5 million of which will be allocated this week — represent part of the first tranche of payments from the $1.5 billion the Empire State received from settlements reached with manufacturers and distributors of opioids after state lawsuits. In all, the Big Apple will receive $256 million during the course of payouts of the various settlements, officials said.
“These funds will have an immediate impact on our communities and for individuals on the ground who are struggling with drug addiction,” James said during a press conference outside Bellevue hospital in Manhattan.
Overdose deaths have almost doubled from pre-pandemic levels in the five boroughs, according to new city data. The city Department of Health reported that 1,233 people died from drug overdoses during the first half of 2021 — a 78% increase from the same period in 2019, and a 28% increase from the same period in 2020.
Mayor Eric Adams announced the retrieval of the overdose prevention funds with Attorney General Letitia James. NYC Mayor's Office“We’re here today to turn the tide on this crisis,” the attorney general said Thursday afternoon. “It’s really critically important that these funds get to New York City, because it means that we can save lives starting today.”
James said the funds will be dedicated to educate young New Yorkers about the danger of drugs and opioids, particularly fentanyl; efforts to prevent people from abusing prescribed medications; and to the distribution of Narcan, a brand of nasal spray Naloxone used to reverse opioids overdoses, to law-enforcement personnel.
Additionally, some of the money funds will be used for in and outpatient drug-rehab services at hospitals, officials said.
“These funds will go a long way to supporting those who need to most,” James said.
During the Thursday afternoon press conference, Mayor Eric Adams thanked James for her efforts to hold big pharmaceutical companies who “fed the overdose crisis” accountable.
“For far too long, they threw a rock, hid their hands, and no one realized they were feeding the crisis,” he said.
Opioid overdoses have almost doubled from pre-pandemic levels. Stephen Yang“We focus on those who wear blue jeans on our street corners [who] deal crack-cocaine, but it is time to look at the three-piece suit pharmaceutical industries, those who are the distributors of drugs … giving children prescriptions, overprescribing,” the mayor added. “The attorney general zeroed in on that, and just did her job and brought the money needed to compliment the services that we need to push back on this overdose crisis.”
Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the city health commissioner, lamented that a New Yorker dies of an overdose every four hours, attributing the recent spike in overdose deaths to the COVID-19 pandemic, fentanyl and undiagnosed mental illnesses.
“The investments that we can make as a result of the opioid settlements will save lives for now and for years to come as we work to end the opioid epidemic,” he said.
The announcement comes after James in March 2019 filed a lawsuit against the billionaire family behind OxyContin, alleging that drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma helped spur the national opioid crisis by seeking profits at the expense of patient safety.
Later in 2019, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the state was suing drug manufacturers and distributors for allegedly defrauding the state and consumers of $2 billion for peddling addictive opioid painkillers that they knew were unsafe.
During the trial in July 2021, the three largest U.S. drug distributors agreed to pay up to $1.18 billion to settle claims by New York state over their role in the opioid epidemic. In October, James launched her “HealNY” tour to deliver the up to $1.5 billion in settlements the Attorney General Office negotiated with drug companies to combat the opioid epidemic.
On Tuesday, James dolled out the first round of payments from the opioid settlement funds to counties in Western New York, according to a press release and local reports.
