GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — Attorney General Josh Stein paid Pitt County a visit on Monday, talking to officials about opioid settlement money and how local governments are using their efforts to fight the opioid epidemic.
County officials say they’re already doing what most counties across the state aren’t doing, which is allocating settlement funds toward different programs and organizations across the county. Stein said with the opioid settlement money, local governments like Pitt County get to decide how to spend it.
“One of the biggest challenges is finding enough service providers and healthcare providers who can help people who have addiction overcome that addiction and live a life of recovery,” Stein said.
Pitt County is already making investments towards finding those providers and addiction specialists by putting $500,000 towards ECU Health and Brody School of Medicine’s Addiction Specialist Fellowship Program. That program is still in the works.
“You’ll hear that many fellows if they do their fellowship, they will stay in the community,” Pitt County Manager Janis Gallagher said. “But we’re bringing in the economic development folks to make sure that these fellows are not only funded by opioid funds but turn out to love Pitt County government.”
Stein said with Medicaid expansion, people can get the addiction treatment they need.
“A lot of folks with addiction need help, so if they can get insurance to pay for their healthcare treatments, their addiction treatment, more providers will get into this line of work, and more people will get helped,” Stein said.
A total of $5,000 from opioid settlement funds has also helped the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office with things such as placing a Narcan machine in the Pitt County Detention Center. Sheriff Paula Dance said 70% of the inmates in the detention center are connected to drugs.
“As inmates leave, they are able to get Narcan out of our machine free of charge,” Dance said. “Obviously we also have to have a supply for officers because there’s always a chance of exposure to fentanyl. So we definitely need to make sure we’re keeping that stocked.”
Stein said Pitt County will continuously receive funding over the next 18 years from the settlement. He added that while addiction will never completely go away, he hopes to see addiction and overdose deaths dramatically decrease during that time frame.
