This article, “Opioid Settlement Advisors Say Hochul Administration is Keeping Them in the Dark,” lays out a tension you’re probably already feeling, especially if you’re working in the substance use counseling field.
New York is sitting on more than $500 million in opioid settlement funds, with billions more to come, but the people charged with advising how that money should be used say they’re being stonewalled. The Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Board reports that OASAS has been slow to provide even basic spending data and has routinely rejected key recommendations with little explanation. Board members are especially alarmed by budget officials floating the idea of using settlement dollars to offset federal cuts, even though state law explicitly says these funds are supposed to pay for new or expanded services, not to plug existing budget holes quietly.
For you as a counselor or program leader, the stakes are enormous. Over 4,500 New Yorkers died of overdoses in 2024, and while deaths have dropped among white New Yorkers, they remain stubbornly high in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. The board’s latest report calls for targeted investment in those communities, more transparency, and real-time data on who is getting what. Yet, as of October, only about $240 million of the more than $500 million appears to have actually been disbursed, and even that figure isn’t clearly explained. Providers on the ground, like rural outreach centers and grassroots organizations such as Save the Michaels of the World, are scrambling to keep doors open while waiting on contracts they were told were coming.
The article also underscores a deeper systems lesson you can bring into supervision rooms, classrooms, and advocacy meetings: money alone doesn’t fix an overdose crisis without accountable structures and community voice. Advisory board members are pushing to protect $35 million in accrued interest for small community-based organizations, expand the number of meetings, and secure a dedicated project manager to untangle communication with OASAS. Legal and policy advocates are warning about déjà vu from the tobacco settlements, where states diverted “health” dollars to unrelated budget gaps. As an educator or clinician, you’re positioned to help trainees and colleagues read moments like this critically: follow the money, center communities of color, and insist that “blood money,” as one expert calls it, actually reaches harm reduction, treatment, and recovery supports—not just the state’s general fund.
Please click the link to read the full article: “Opioid Settlement Advisors Say Hochul Administration is Keeping Them in the Dark.”