Cumberland County Department of Public Health proposes latest spending of national opioid settlement dollars

Another flood of national opioid settlement dollars is about to hit Cumberland County. The county’s department of public health is recommending spending around $7.75 million out of its available national opioid settlement funds on several ongoing and new efforts to address the opioid crisis. 

The funds would be distributed from 2025 to 2029. They come in addition to the over $2 million already approved for ongoing projects.

The newest proposed recommendation revolves around prevention education. The strategy falls under “Option B,” one of two ways North Carolina’s local governments can spend their shares of national opioid settlement funds. It would be Cumberland County’s first “Option B” strategy, defined by the state as long-term “opioid remediation activities.” “Option A” strategies are a list of 12 specific “high-impact opioid abatement strategies” like substance use disorder treatment and syringe exchanges.

Cumberland County Board of Commissioners currently funds prevention education in county K-12 schools using $300,000 from its American Rescue Plan fund. Those funds will run out in December 2026. Per the recommendation from the commissioners, money from the national opioid settlement funds would continue to sustain the project. The county public health department’s proposal would give $450,000 starting in 2027 to support the education initiative.

“So we’re using that to support those mobile AEDs [automated external defibrillators], a public health educator, a peer support specialist to do prevention education in schools,” said Green during a presentation at the Oct. 15 Cumberland-Fayetteville Opioid Response Team (C-FORT) meeting.

Feedback from four opioid settlement town halls the department hosted throughout the county in September and earlier this month also shaped the funding recommendations. Residents can still provide input on how the funds should be spent via a survey until Oct. 31. 

Residents most frequently recommended funding for recovery housing during those town halls, according to the department’s funding recommendations presentation. Oxford Houses, a statewide network of recovery houses, operates 10 recovery houses in Cumberland County. 

Federal funding for the county’s Oxford Houses ended on Sept. 30. The department’s proposed $500,000 for recovery housing, or about $100,000 a year, will continue to support Oxford Houses. 

“This matches what we have spent so far and what we would anticipate spending if we would have continued the program,” said Green during the presentation.

The Cumberland County Department of Public Health’s funding recommendations come as the pilot projects funded by a previous round of settlement money wrap up their test runs this year. Four million dollars is being proposed to continue those projects, including those with North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, Myrover-Reese Fellowship Homes Inc. and other organizations funded in 2022. The county would also seek more community-based projects to address the opioid crisis, offering up to $800,000 per project approved. The request for proposals process begins in 2025 and funding would run through 2029.

Other recommendations include:

• $500,000 to support C-FORT
• $500,000 for naloxone, an overdose-reversing drug
• $400,000 for the county’s Family Drug Treatment Court and its criminal justice diversion programs
• $500,000 for Healing from Within, Cumberland County Detention Center’s Medication for Opioid Use Disorder program
• $800,000 for staffing, supplies and other resources for the soon-to-be-open Recovery Resource Center on Executive Place

Visits to Cumberland County’s emergency departments for drug overdoses decreased between 2022 — the first year the county received its share of national opioid settlement dollars — and 2023, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’s dashboard. The numbers continued to drop into 2024, according to data presented at the Oct. 15 C-FORT meeting.

“When it comes to fentanyl death, any death matters,” said Louis Leake, clinic director at Fayetteville’s Comprehensive Treatment Center, during the Oct. 15 C-FORT meeting. “So, yes, the number is getting lower, but, at the same time, deaths are still occurring.”

The details of the latest recommendations still need to be fleshed out by Cumberland County Department of Public Health staff. Once finalized, they will be sent to the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners for approval in November. If all the funding is approved, Cumberland County would have spent around $9.8 million on the opioid crisis since fiscal year 2022. Per the terms of the national opioid settlements, over the course of 18 years, Cumberland County is allotted a total of around $31.6 million in available funds.

If you or a loved one are looking for resources for an opioid use disorder, see Alliance Health’s website or call 800-510-9132. Naloxone Saves provides a list of places to access naloxone. A list of drug take-back boxes can be found on the “Take Back Your Drugs” page. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services lists syringe exchange programs on its website.

More information on Cumberland County and North Carolina’s share of national opioid settlements is available on the CORE-NC and More Powerful NC websites.

CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the CityView News Fund.