Jeff Davis Parish could receive million of dollars over the next 18 years to combat the opioid crisis and other substance abuse problems in the area.

The money is part of the more than $325 million in settlement money from national pharmaceutical companies and drug manufacturers who made and sold opioid painkillers. The money will be distributed to local governments and sheriffs across the state over the next 18 years, according to District Attorney Lauren Heinen.

Although the parish has not received the funds, Heinen began discussions this week with the Jeff Davis Parish Police Jury on how the money could be used locally to decrease drug overdoses and curb the opioid and substance abuse crisis.

“There’s no secret within this community that we have a drug problem,” she said  “We have a lot of people with major addictive issues and I am very excited about the potential with these funds coming through and building out some programming that can really make a big impact on our parish.”

Heinen said there have been extensive conversations about the potential of the settlement funds coming in and how to allocate the money.

“Every parish within the state has an allocation of a percentage of these funds which will be paid out over a period of 18 years, which is great because it gives some longevity to potential programming that we would want to try to implement within our parish,” Heinen said. “It’s a good chunk of money over a long period of time and there are specific guidelines as to what these monies can be used for.”

Heinen said the money is intended to help provide treatment and other programs to mitigate problems caused by the opioid crisis and other drug addiction problems in the state.

Being in the criminal sector, Heinen says she sees a lot of people coming through with addiction problems or issues related to a drug problem, including thefts and domestic violence.

“We see a lot of people who are committing theft who are addicted to drugs, specifically ones that fall under this category of opioids,” she said.

Locally, Heinen would like to see the funds used to implement a drug court program which would provide treatment, therapy, monitoring and supervision for non-violent drug offenders.

“I have an understanding of what some of that programming could look like,” Heinen said. “I have already had an opportunity to try to figure out ways for this money to be used and not wasted in terms of getting services to people who have been a victim of opioid addictions or have been in a relationship with somebody who was in an opioid addiction.”

Local law enforcement and judicial officials have been interested in a drug court for some time, she said.

“Drug court has been something that has continuously been talked about, the problem has been implementing it,” Heinen said. “I think having a drug court-like program where we are hitting all those factors that the drug court program hits in terms of making sure you are identifying those persons that are good candidates to go through the program. Having an intensive programming and treatment and intensive accountability will be very important to identifying and treating the problem at hand, which is the opioid crisis.”

The drug court would be an intensive probationary period for offenders and would provide intensive treatment programs and accountability measures for those who are addicted to drugs or have been a victim because of drug use.

“Right now there’s lots of inpatient and outpatient treatment centers, but we really don’t have a strong probationary system that is intensive in the way that it needs to be in order to successfully rehabilitate some of these people that are addicted to drugs,” she said.