Milwaukee Gets $18 Million Opioid Settlement
But overdoses, deaths and need for treatment continue to increase.
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Pills by Tom Varco (Own work) (CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
The City of Milwaukee will receive an initial payment of $2 million and $18 million over the life of the settlement.
The city’s $18 million comes as part of approximately $400 million Wisconsin will receive, of which about $100 million will be distributed to the Milwaukee area.
Murphy said a formal proposal on exactly what the city will spend its initial funding on will come in September.
The alderman, as chair of the City-County Heroin, Opioid, and Cocaine Task Force, has watched as the crisis has mushroomed in Milwaukee and elsewhere in the nation. He said the latest growth area in opioid abuse is in Milwaukee’s African American community, joining the already plagued South Side.
A state dashboard shows opioid deaths in Milwaukee have climbed steadily from 212 in 2014 to 424 in 2020. Milwaukee County reported a record 643 drug overdose deaths in 2021.
The state in aggregate will receive $50 million in 2022 from the settlement this year, but Attorney General Josh Kaul said in March that this amount is less than the state already spends on the Treatment Alternatives and Diversion program.
MORI attempts to help people who have experienced a non-fatal overdose or are close to someone who overdoses. The program’s funding supports MFD and peer support counselors from community partners making follow-up visits. It also pays for things like free rides from transportation network company Lyft to treatment facilities.
In 2019, Murphy said the city’s earlier follow-up efforts amounted to handing an individual a postcard-sized note with a phone number on it as they left the ambulance. Now care services are coordinated in partnerships with groups like Community Medical Services, WisHope and CleanSlate Milwaukee and follow-up visits are made.
Funding for the settlement comes from four companies: Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson. Additional settlements are expected to be forthcoming from other companies including opioid maker Purdue Pharma.
More about the Opioid Crisis
- MKE County: County Creates Easy Public Access To Overdose Data - Graham Kilmer - Feb 18th, 2025
- Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and the Office of Emergency Management Launch New Overdose Dashboard - County Executive David Crowley - Feb 18th, 2025
- Fitzgerald Advances Legislation to Fight Opioid Epidemic - U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald - Feb 6th, 2025
- Milwaukee Is Losing a Generation of Black Men To Drug Crisis - Edgar Mendez and Devin Blake - Jan 31st, 2025
- Milwaukee County’s Overdose Deaths Declined For Second Straight Year - Evan Casey - Jan 27th, 2025
- MKE County: United Community Center Awarded Drug Company Money For Addiction Treatment - Graham Kilmer - Jan 12th, 2025
- DHS Provides Update on Distribution of Latest Opioid Settlement Funds - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Jan 9th, 2025
- Menominee Tribe Has 70% Decline in Overdose Deaths, Hospitalizations - Joe Schulz - Nov 27th, 2024
- Serenity Inns: A Proven Lifesaving Facility Denied Critical State Funding - Serenity Inns - Nov 19th, 2024
- Milwaukee County Outreach Team Going Door-to-Door Handing Out Narcan in High Overdose Areas - Evan Casey - Nov 14th, 2024
Read more about Opioid Crisis here
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