In the coming years, Texas is set to receive billions of dollars to address the ongoing opioid crisis that has taken the lives of more than 10,000 Texans between 2020 and 2023, per state data. Already, the state has allocated over $100 million in funds to cities and counties. Some local governments have begun to use the money, while others haven’t spent a dime.
The payouts come from legal settlements with opioid manufacturers, distributors, and consultants for their role in pushing prescription opioids across the country. The funds, which will be distributed annually for the next 18 years, are coming as recent cuts under the Trump administration hit both Medicaid and the federal agency serving people with substance use disorder. Meanwhile, the spread of more potent opioids, including fentanyl, has been met with an increasingly militarized border crackdown that experts say doesn’t address the root problems.
The last time corporations paid out legal settlements for harming public health—the big tobacco settlements from more than two decades ago—much of the money was not used to curb smoking or the harms associated with it. This time around, experts say that how the opioid funds are used in these early years could set the tone for the next nearly two decades that Texas receives settlement dollars.
