Question 1: What is the money being spent on?
$10 million will go directly to nonprofits that are working to fight drug addiction in Baltimore.
The rest is mostly going to pay salaries and administrative costs:
$2 million for an advisory board and contractors for “guidance” on the opioid response.
$2 million for “staffing and support costs” at the Health Department.
Two new positions in the mayor’s office to oversee grant spending, each earning $135,000.
Question 2: That’s only two-thirds of the money so far going directly to nonprofits. Is that a problem?
It’s a tricky balancing act. Everyone obviously wants as much money as possible to go toward treating addiction as quickly as possible. But the city needs to make sure that money is being spent properly.
We’ve seen both extremes play out around the country.
Long Island got over $200 million from opioid settlements but they’ve only spent $8 million. The rest is sitting in their bank account because the process for spending it has so much red tape.
Delaware is the opposite. The state’s attorney general warned them that the settlement money was likely being lost to fraud. Instead of pausing the spending, they gave out another $2 million just days later.
Baltimore needs to avoid falling down either of those paths.
Question 3: How much more money can we expect to come in, and how will it be used?
$242 million received so far.
The big one is Baltimore’s lawsuit with Cencora and McKesson. They were originally asking for $11 billion, now they’ve lowered it to
$5 billion. A ruling is expected in February.
We don’t know yet how much will be spent on administrative costs instead of directly treating addiction. If it increases each time funding is doled out, it could turn into an issue.