Funding to fight opioids still unspent in some Michigan counties
More than three years after Michigan communities began receiving millions of dollars from an opioid settlement, some counties and cities are still holding money that is meant to help mitigate the ongoing harm of the opioid crisis, according to reporting on local spending. The sluggish pace has drawn criticism from state leaders who say the funds need to move faster to community programs.
Michigan is set to receive at least $1.6 billion over 18 years from a national lawsuit settlement with drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies deemed partly responsible for the opioid crisis. State officials receive half, while the remaining half is split among Michigan counties, townships and cities. The money began arriving in January 2023, and discussions about local use have continued as the state works to address the crisis’s toll.
Experts say the funds are starting to make a difference in some places, but the timing has frustrated some local and state officials. Jonathan Stoltman, of the Grand Rapids-based Opioid Policy Institute, said if communities require a deliberative process that takes three years, it is too long, adding that “Money needs to get out the door.” He argued that settlement funds are intended to reduce harm from a crisis that as recently as 2023 killed nearly 3,000 Michiganders, with an estimated 80% of those deaths opioid-related.
The reporting found uncertainty about how much of the settlement money sent to communities since 2023 has actually been spent. A 2024 Bridge investigation provided the first statewide accounting and found that more than 40% of communities had not spent any funds, with about $90 million sitting in bank accounts. A survey conducted in spring 2025 by the Michigan Association of Counties found similar results: of the 36 counties that responded, 40% had yet to open their checkbooks—improving from 2024, when 51% had not spent money.
Michigan’s attorney general is seeking more authoritative data on the spending to date. The Michigan Department of Attorney General has asked counties, townships and cities receiving opioid settlement funds to report how the money has been spent, and those findings are expected to be released this spring, according to Danny Wimmer, a spokesperson for Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Eaton County is among the communities still not distributing funds. The county receives about $300,000 annually and, in an email, Logan Bailey, director of public and governmental affairs, said it has “developed a strategic plan and a community assessment to identify gaps in mitigation efforts.” Bailey added that the county is still in a planning/assessing/collecting RFPs stage.
Other parts of the state are at different stages, but some timelines remain slow. In Grand Traverse County, where Traverse City is located, officials said spending has been delayed by efforts to create a plan for the money. Mike Lahey, the county health officer, said the county’s first attempt failed, but that a plan is now in place and a task force has been formed, with hopes that requests for proposals would be out in May. Pam Lynch of Harm Reduction Michigan said the process has been frustrating for people who have been doing effective work for a long time.
Officials in Lenawee County said they will consider $1.25 million in proposals for the county’s first opioid settlement spending in April. Isabella County, which has $1.1 million in settlement funds in the bank, expects to spend its first settlement funds in 2026, and Schoolcraft County in the Upper Peninsula is forming a committee to make spending recommendations. The city of Warren had about $2.9 million in opioid settlement funds in the bank as of October and had not disbursed any by then.
Warren Mayor Lori Stone said in an October news release that there are those “anxious to push dollars out without fully considering community needs, process, best practices, or long-term impact,” and that the mayor’s goal is to find a way of generating continuous revenue dedicated to addressing ongoing needs related to opioid use, substance use disorder and addiction. Warren officials did not respond to a request for an update on opioid settlement spending.
Cara Poland, chair of the Michigan Opioid Advisory Commission, which makes recommendations to the Legislature, said communities should be thoughtful about how they spend settlement dollars, but that “planning time has been adequate.” Poland told Bridge that “We should be (using) those funds,” reflecting a view that communities have had time to move from planning to spending.
Even as some local governments wait, Michigan’s state agency is distributing funds tied to prevention, treatment and recovery. With the state’s half of settlement dollars, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is distributing $131 million this budget year for drug prevention, treatment and recovery services around the state. One highlighted effort is the distribution of naloxone kits: since 2023, Michigan has spent $14.8 million in settlement money for 424,882 kits of naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, which organizations can request for free and which, in many communities, can be picked up in vending machines and converted newspaper boxes.
The opioid settlement funds have also prompted debate about how closely spending aligns with the crisis’s needs. Stoltman said he is eager for settlement funds to be spent but worries some communities have used the funds for things that do not address the crisis. He pointed to examples including Flint spending $25,000 on a sign-language interpreter for city council meetings and Farmington Hills using $120,000 to backfill its budget, arguing it was replacing money spent on the drug crisis in the past. “The best case scenario is that folks (who have yet to spend settlement dollars) are scared to mess it up,” Stoltman said. “But in your fourth year, you can’t be too scared to spend it.”