New dashboard launched to track how Kentucky is spending its opioid settlement money
By Melissa PatrickKentucky Health NewsThe Kentucky Attorney General’s Office has launched its long-awaited online dashboard that allows Kentuckians to see how opioid settlement funds are being spent.
“This is the first time we can accurately show what resources are coming into Kentucky to battle the opioid epidemic and how they are being used,” Christopher Evans, director of Kentucky’s Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, said in a news release. “This information will allow Kentuckians to maximize the opportunity we have before us to save lives and change the trajectory of substance misuse in the commonwealth.”
The interactive dashboard, developed in partnership with the University of Kentucky Rapid Actionable Data for Response (RADOR), summarizes how opioid settlement dollars are being invested around Kentucky and what impact those investments are having on prevention, treatment and recovery, and community resilience. It was unveiled by the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission during its July meeting.
The dashboard shows the total amount of opioid settlement distributed to counties and cities, along with how the money has been disbursed, among other things.
The dashboard pulls reporting from local governments and state grant funding and makes it accessible to the public. Data will be updated regularly, and new functionality will be developed over the next several months.
The Kentucky legislature created the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission in 2021 to distribute the state’s portion of what is now about $1 billion from settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors, with half of the money going to the state and the other half going to local governments. The money is provided in installments.
Since 2023, the commission has awarded 300 grants totaling $86.5 million to organizations throughout Kentucky focused on prevention, treatment and recovery work, as well as innovation. Another $52.7 million has been dedicated to other investments, including the Senate Bill 90 diversion pilot programs and the “Better Without It” youth prevention initiative.
Last year, the commission launched an online portal for local governments to report how settlement dollars are being used across Kentucky. Each community receiving funds must, under Kentucky law, report annually how much money it receives, how it is spent, and what is being done with the money. Reports must be submitted by Aug. 31, detailing spending during the previous fiscal year.
But, according to a report released last week by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, 90% of the awarded funds to local governments have not been used. And the Kentucky Lantern reports that Ashley Spalding, a senior fellow at KyPolicy, said at a virtual press conference that of the 70 counties that spent about $12 million in settlement funding in 2025, nearly $2 million of that “was problematic spending on ineffective, unproven, and/or harmful responses.”
Editor’s Note: The Lazer reported last week that Lawrence Co. has $488,000 in opioid money in local banks according the County Treasurer Josh Puckett. Puckett agreed that it is difficult to find ways to spend the funding because of the way it is set up. He said the state needed clear guidelines on how to spend the funds. The above article seems to answer at least some of the questions about the giant opioid settlement that left Ky with nearly $1 billion to spend on fighting opioid abuse.
Since my friend Tim Robinson got in trouble, treating addiction has not been addressed as much locally. Robinson’s Addiction Recovery Care has been fighting the disease for nearly 20 years with some real success. ARC provided treatment for inmates when they were released by court order and accepted referrals from different agencies. It is not clear if any or all of those services are being provided by ARC since Robinson resigned as President of the company after he was indicted on wire fraud and other charges by the federal government. ARC is apparently still operating according to social media posts they release frequently. Robinson’s unique knowledge of the subject could be useful in spending the Opioid Funds we have. What do you think?
