The opioid settlement money is finally about to kick in, but don’t expect the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury and the Sheriff’s Office to deliver a quick fix.

The CPPJ will get $550,000 a year for the next 18 years. The CPSO has received $275,944.55 as its first payment.

In Louisiana, 80 percent of the payments went to parish and city. Twenty percent went to the sheriff’s offices.

Over the next two months Calcasieu Parish Assistant Adminstrator Dane Bolin is assembling a committee of 12 that will include medical, addiction treatment, legal and other  professionals to ensure funds are used for an “effective program, one that can be evaluated and measured.”

“We are not going to spend the money immediately without forethought as some jurisdictions around the country might have done,” Bolin said. “We owe it to the people to put the proper structure in place.”

The Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office is not required by the state to share its plan with the public, but did. Kayla Vincent, CPSO spokesperson said Sheriff Tony Mancuso would like to combine his funding with the CPPJ’s funds to come up with a program in the Corrections facility to assist those who have a known opioid addiction or show signs.

“Nothing has been finalized,” Vincent said. “The CPPJ and CPSO have discussed it. The CPPJ is over medical in the corrections facilities. If we are unable to combine funds for this purpose, we will use the monies for another approved purpose.”

These include supporting the work of Emergency Medical Systems, including peer support specialists, to connect individuals to treatment or other services following an opioid overdose or related event and increased overdose treatments and education including practices and precautions when dealing with fentanyl or other drugs.

Two years ago, it was announced the state was expected to receive $325 million from the 18-year settlement involving three of the nation’s largest drug distribution companies and drug maker Johnson and Johnson. Calcasieu. Forty-two states were involved in the settlement. Each state’s share of the funding has been determined by a formula that takes into account the population of the state and the impact of the crisis on it — the number of overdose deaths, the number of residents with substance use disorder, and the number of opioids prescribed.

Unlike the tobacco settlement in the late 1990s that funneled only a small portion of its plans into prevention, and even subsidized tobacco farmers, this money must be spent on evidence-based, forward-looking, approved purposes. Bolin said that could involve treatment, including treatment of people with any co-occurring substance abuse disorders and mental health issues. Prevention could support efforts to prevent over prescribing, training for health care providers and preventing deaths. Other strategies could include law and other first responder education, plans to identify goals for reducing harm and supporting opioid abatement research.

“As you can see, there are numerous strategies that the working group and the police jury could take on, but we want to make sure we spend the money wisely and cautiously. Over the next several months, we’ll be working on the timeline on how and when the money will be spent.”

An estimated 9.2 million Americans aged 12 and older misused opioids in 2021, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). That includes 8.7 prescription pain reliever abusers and 1.1 million heroin users. Opioids are drugs formulated to replicate the pain-relieving properties of opium such as morphine, oxycodone and hydrocodone. Heroin and illicitly made fentanyl are also opioids. The word opioid is from the word opium. More than 110,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2022 and more than two-thirds of those deaths involved a synthetic opioid, according to SAMHSA.