Corinne Kaufman, whose granddaughter Paige Gibbons died of an accidental overdose in 2022, spoke in front of the Nassau County Legislature pleading for opioid settlement funds to be spent to combat the opioid crisis
Peter M. Budraitis
Nassau County has received nearly $100 million in opioid settlement funds and spent about $3 million. With a majority of the amount still left over, Nassau County Democratic Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton looks to where the funds can be spent to combat the opioid crisis in her own backyard.
“With this much money, we could really combat the opioid addiction issue,” DeRiggi-Whitton said.
Nassau County has acquired nearly $100 million in opioid settlement funds, but could be awarded up to $180 million.
The county Legislature accepted an additional $1.185 million in new opioid settlement funds on Dec. 16, adding it to the nearly $100 million pot of funds the county held already.
Prior to the additional funds on Dec. 16, the county had spent $3.01 million of its opioid settlement funds, amounting to about 3.15% of the $95.5 million the county had received before the latest increase.
Nassau County has collected interest on the settlement funds, so far amounting to more than $3 million.
DeRiggi-Whitton had ideas of how Nassau County could spend the settlement money, including grants to multiple local agencies that provide drug and substance abuse services. She said this is where she would want to start when divvying up the settlement funds.
“They do incredible work already for the county,” DeRiggi-Whitton said.
Another idea that DeRiggi-Whitton suggested was to provide additional grants to local area hospitals to help them combat the medical side of substance use, including Nassau University Medical Center – Nassau County’s only publicly funded hospital – or even Catholic Health.
She said providing funds to hospitals could increase the number of beds available for individuals seeking drug-related treatment, citing a shortage currently facing the county.
“As a legislator, it is so frustrating when you get a call that a family has a family member that wants to go into treatment and then they can’t find a bed that’s available,” DeRiggi-Whitton said.
Other ideas she put forward included drug and substance use education, including teaching students the dangers of using fentanyl and other drugs.
DeRiggi-Whitton called the disbursement of the funds a “life or death” situation.
This urgency was expressed by Corinne Kaufman, whose granddaughter Paige Gibbons died of an overdose in 2022 after accidentally consuming fentanyl when she believed she was taking a Percocet at a friend’s sleepover. She has since launched the Families Against Fentanyl campaign, which distributes Narcan kits to middle school and high school nurses.
Kaufman addressed the Nassau County Legislature at the Dec. 16 meeting, asking the county to use its settlement funds to provide fentanyl test strips and Narcan kits to residents seeking the resources and bolstering education initiatives in schools.
“It is discouraging not to see settlement funds used for strong, proactive programs yet,” Kaufman said. “We are seeing the slow drip of settlement funds when you really need those funds to be working to prevent these disasters. You all hold such great power in your hands to save lives by expediting these funds. It’s time to save lives now.”
The county kicked off spending the funds in 2022 with a $2.4 million award to local substance use treatment groups, with $2 million of it going to Nassau University Medical Center. Another $180,000 was awarded to Catholic Health’s Mercy Hospital and $60,000 grants were given to five other community groups.
The county’s Rules Committee recently approved a contract to test wastewater for opioids, other drugs and diseases. The wastewater testing is being funded by $259,292 in opioid lawsuit settlement funds and $193,000 in American Rescue Plan Act resources.
The county has allocated another $3.01 million in 14 vendor contracts and has guaranteed $12.7 million to another 18 vendors, according to Newsday. These funds are not considered officially spent yet.
Suffolk has received $118 million in settlement funds, allocated more than $57 million in contracts and spent about $5.1 million so far.
Neighboring New York City had received $154 million in settlement funds by July, according to a September report. Funds had been spent on drug counseling and addiction consultation, syringe service programs at overdose prevention centers and other substance use services through the NYC H+H program.
There is no timeline or deadline to spend the funds, although a federal bill had been proposed to enact a deadline for spending.
“Someone told me, ‘Oh, you don’t want to take a chance of some money being called back,’” DeRiggi-Whitton said. “Well, no, you don’t want to lose the money, but you also don’t want to just sit there indefinitely.”