Last year, journalists working with BINJ started examining opioid settlement funds coming into Massachusetts. Money from these agreements began flowing about four years ago, with an early contribution coming in 2021 when consulting giant McKinsey & Company agreed to pay $573 million nationally (including $13 million to the commonwealth) to settle claims regarding its advice to pharmaceutical companies on maximizing opioid sales.
The commonwealth anticipates receiving more than $1 billion by 2038 for opioid abatement efforts, with more than $300 million already disbursed. Among other revelations, in our first feature covering the subject, journalist Jon Gerhardson reported that while the DPH advises municipalities against “funding law enforcement and/or first responders to engage people who use drugs (PWUD) through post-overdose outreach and/or other engagement efforts,” some cities and towns have ignored this guidance.
Following that article, BINJ applied for and was fortunate to receive a grant from the Data-Driven Reporting Project (DDRP) at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism to help continue our coverage. In September, we dropped the first followup, by Jacob Schles, about how McKinsey continued doing millions of dollars of business with Mass after it settled with the state over its role in the overdose crisis.
And this week, BINJ Editorial Director Chris Faraone published another piece in the series, this one about where opioid abatement funds are not going. He writes: “The commonwealth will receive more than a billion dollars for opioid remediation—none of it is for the state’s most vulnerable drug-dependent population.” Read the new feature here.
