Northern Kentucky counties are benefiting from over $4.5 million in grant funds pulled from a 2022 Kentucky opioid settlement, with more funding potentially on the way.
To date the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission has awarded $4.57 million in grants directly impacting NKY out of more than $32.5 million total grant funds awarded statewide. Commission awards directly impacting NKY include:
- Northern Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy: $1 million for prevention services (Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties)
- Voices of Hope: $1 million for multicounty treatment and recovery (includes Campbell and Kenton counties)
- The Healing Place: $850,000 for multicounty treatment and recovery (includes Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties)
- Recovery Cafe Lexington: $657,000 for multicounty treatment and recovery (includes Kenton County)
- Kentucky Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs: $500,000 for multicounty prevention services (includes Campbell and Kenton counties)
- Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky Inc.: $320,098 for treatment and recovery (Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties)
- Legal Aid of the Bluegrass: $250,000 for multicounty prevention services (includes Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties)
Another round of funding is in the works. Organizations have until March 31 to apply for new funds, tapped from $900 million in total settlement dollars – including $478 million owed to the state by four drug companies (Cardinal, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Johnson & Johnson) as part of a $26 billion multistate settlement agreement in 2022.
Half of the settlement money goes directly to cities and counties. The other half is being awarded by the commission, led by former Trump official and Drug Enforcement Administration veteran Chris Evans. Funding is being rolled out over 18 years, according to the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, which handled the state’s lawsuits against major drug companies.
Kenton County is also included in a multicounty four-year pilot program that allows low-level drug or other nonviolent offenders who complete substance use or mental health treatment to clear their record. The $10.5 million program began in 2023 and now covers 12 counties statewide.
“It’s excellent,” commission member and House budget subcommittee chair Rep. Danny Bentley (R-Russell) said about the pilot program — called the Behavioral Health Conditional Dismissal Program– during a commission update before his subcommittee on Wednesday. “And there’s no taxpayer money. It’s all coming out of the commission.”
Evans, who testified before the subcommittee on Wednesday, said the commission is taking “a fresh look” at its work since Evans took over as the agency’s executive director last month.
“I think there will be real opportunities to see where funding is being spent,” he said.
Substance use is a “significant concern” in the NKY region, according to the Northern Kentucky Health Department’s overdose data dashboard.
Between March 1, 2022 and Jan. 26, 2024, the dashboard reported 1,124 ER visits and 2,026 EMS/paramedic calls (including 1,188 administered uses of the overdose drug Naloxone) related to suspected drug overdose in the NKY Health Department region, which includes Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties.
In cases of suspected drug overdose, most EMS calls were in Boone and Kenton counties, while a majority of the ER visits were reported in Kenton County, the data shows.
NKY EMS agencies reported 90 fatalities linked to suspected overdose over the period, according to dashboard data. None of those fatalities were reported as occurring this year.
Mentioning Evans’ law enforcement background, Rep. Rachel Roberts (D-Newport) asked him at Wednesday’s meeting how treatment fits into the commission’s work to fight opioid addiction in Kentucky. Evans said it’s part of the “pillar” that government agencies work under to fight substance abuse.
“I know there are people who have asked about different aspects of which is more important,” Evans said. “My response is they are all important… The earlier the engagement, the better off it is.”
Also speaking to the subcommittee about the commission was Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman’s Senior Counsel Wil Schroder, a former NKY state senator from Wilder. Schroder said the Attorney General’s office is taking a comprehensive look at the commission’s work ahead.
“We’re going through and looking at what has been successful in the past,” said Schoder. “We’re not just looking at Kentucky, but beyond.”
