As BINJ has covered more than any other outlet, Massachusetts is receiving a massive influx of money to fight the opioid crisis. The Commonwealth is expecting about $1 billion over 18 years, comprising its share of nationwide legal settlements with opioid manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. The money is earmarked for addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery.
Since BINJ began reporting on this story in 2024, we have shown just how little of that money has been spent, despite the urgency of the opioid public health crisis. In fiscal year 2024, the majority of municipalities did not report making any expenditures at all. During that same period, there were 1,763 opioid-related deaths in the state, more than 95% of them from overdoses.
It was not easy to secure the most recent opioid recovery fund spending data. State officials went to great lengths to withhold the numbers, and missed the required legal deadline to make remediation spending information public. But after wrestling with the Department of Public Health for months, the agency reluctantly provided follow-up data that covers fiscal year 2025. Major findings of our reporting in the past year include:
- Nearly half of Mass. municipalities reported no expenditures in FY25.
- Many of the cities that are among the biggest recipients of funding actually spent relatively little of that money in FY25.
- Funds are being used for differing strategies in different communities, and the appropriations decision-making process varies from place to place.
- Some local governments are using opioid remediation dollars to fund police departments in ways that run afoul of state guidelines.
The work we have done in the past year to obtain public records and secure other source documents has made an impact beyond our coverage of the settlements themselves. Thanks to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s rulings in our favor, we have revealed a pattern of opaqueness, delay and obstruction exhibited by DPH and other government agencies, which reflects a deeply flawed system of public records accountability in our state.
Now we are seeking additional support, because there is still much more to this story. Specifically, we will continue to track how municipalities are spending their opioid settlement money, but our focus will expand to examining whether all this money has made a difference in the fight against opioid addiction. Is there any measurable correlation between harm reduction spending and addiction or treatment rates?
With your help, we will find out.
