New York State has received $3 billion in court settlements from companies that caused the opioid crisis. Those funds are making progress in reducing overdose deaths and helping drug addicts.
One thing about the opioid crisis and the impacts on people and families is that it hit many types of people, like Victoria Treadwell, featured in a video by the Office of Addiction Services and Supports, or OASAS.
“In 2016, I overdosed in the front seat of my car. I grew up in a small town, and when I overdosed, I thought my whole world was ending," Treadwell said. "...I am a beauty pageant winner, a clinical medical technician, and an overdose survivor.
Another thing about the rising drug crisis is that it's getting better.
“We experienced the worst overdose epidemic ever on record in the United States and in New York State," OASAS Executive Director Chinazo Cunningham. "There were 6,300 New Yorkers dying every year. The good news is that since then and over the last 12 months, overdose deaths have decreased by over 30%. So that's 1,800 lives spared.”
Cunningham credited much of the progress made in reducing death and addiction to opioids. New York has received around $3 billion from pharmaceutical companies, drug stores, and doctors’ practices found guilty of overprescribing opioid painkillers.
About $450 million has been spent on a variety of prevention efforts.
“That includes expanding buprenorphine, a medication for the treatment of opioid addiction, reaching thousands of people going out into communities to offer treatment like in a mobile unit. It includes transportation," Cunningham said. "So, thousands and thousands of rides to people so that they don't miss, their treatment appointments or their court appointments, or they can get to work.”
Cunningham added the funds cover free naloxone inhalers that help people potentially reverse overdoses. She noted inpatient addiction treatment has expanded to most who want it.
