New York State Attorney General Letitia James is delivering more than $256 million to New York City to stem the tide of opioid addiction and overdose. The announcement was made as part of a statewide campaign called, “Heal NY: Turning the Tide on the Opioid Crises.”

 

James made the announcement inside the auditorium of Lincoln Hospital, located at 234 E 149th St, in Mott Haven, on Oct. 4. The funds are part of a $1.5 billion legal settlement reached with various manufacturers and distributors of opioids, according to the attorney general’s office, and are earmarked for addiction abatement, prevention, education, and treatment resources.

 

At the event, James was joined by 20 elected officials representing the City, State, and federal governments, including Bronx Borough President Ruben Díaz Jr., Congressmen Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) and Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (S.D. 34), State Sen. Luis Sepúlveda (S.D. 32), Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81) and Assembly Member Nathalia Fernández (A.D. 80). “It’s time to heal New York,” James said. “We’re here in the South Bronx because the South Bronx has been particularly hit hard by the opioid epidemic.”

 

In March 2019, James brought a lawsuit, on behalf of the State, against six opioid manufacturers including Purdue Pharma and its affiliates, and members of the Sackler Family [owners of Purdue] and the trusts they control; Janssen Pharmaceuticals and its affiliates, including its parent company Johnson & Johnson; Mallinckrodt LLC and its affiliates; Endo Health Solutions and its affiliates; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. and its affiliates; and Allergan Finance, LLC and its affiliates.

 

After some opening remarks by James, some elected officials shared personal stories to underscore the deep-rooted reach of the opioid crisis, and how it has affected families from all walks of life, all across the City.

Díaz Jr. asked the audience, “Have you ever buried two uncles because of substance abuse? Have you ever been to 149th Street and saw your cousin and said, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ and she doesn’t recognize you, or doesn’t want to acknowledge you because she’s in this fog, this haze?” Díaz Jr. continued, “Well, you know what? I have. This shows that no one, no family has been immune or safe from this.” The borough president commended James for taking action on the crisis through the ‘HealNY’ tour.

 

Meanwhile, Bowman said earlier this year, one of his constituents, 15-year-old Olivia Green, had died due to a fentanyl overdose. “Every year this epidemic rages on and claims thousands of lives in my district and across the state — lives that are precious and which must be saved,” Bowman said. “The opioid epidemic is a health crisis, a mental illness crisis, a hopelessness crisis. It must be addressed through health care and community care solutions — not incarceration, punishment, and endless cycles of cruelty,” he added, thanking James for the funding and for holding manufacturers accountable.

 

Reports by the New York Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration show that “the COVID-19 pandemic has made the opioid crisis worse in New York, accounting for a spike in methamphetamine and fentanyl seizures.” Meanwhile, The Office of the Special Prosecutor for the City of New York (SNP) found that “a flood of heroin and fentanyl is entering New York City in 2021.”

 

State Sen. Gustavo Rivera is chair of the New York State health committee and has also commended James’ efforts in holding manufacturers accountable and said they would go a long way to help those still struggling with substance use. “While this will not bring back those who we have lost to this devastating crisis, it will help the process of healing and recovery,” the senator said.

 

Last year, in anticipation of State budget cuts of up to 20 percent in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, local nonprofits working on the front lines in response to opioid abuse feared that such reductions to funding would increase the number of overdose deaths.

 

Nonprofit representatives looked forward, therefore, to seeing the settlement funds headed their way. Hiawatha Collins is a community and capacity building manager at the National Harm Reduction Coalition, based in Manhattan. The national advocacy group helps people address the adverse effects of drug use, addiction, and incarceration.

 

“I am so glad, so proud to hear where this money is going to… to education, to training, to prevention, harm reduction, and things like that,” Collins said. “Everyone has an opportunity to change and save a life. Overdose is something that is preventable.”

 

Other nonprofits are hoping that the funds from the settlement will be allocated appropriately. Norwood News reached out to Rev. Addie Banks, executive director of, “We Engage in Prevention Awareness,” (WEPA), for her views on how the $250 million funding might impact addiction services in the Northwest Bronx, where she runs a program to raise awareness of substance misuse and addiction prevention.

 

Banks sees a great opportunity for the various stakeholders to reap the benefits of a multi-million-dollar influx of money.  “[The] WEPA coalition salutes the bold efforts of Attorney General Letitia James’ actions, which are groundbreaking for under-resourced communities in the parts of the Bronx where opioid use has further exacerbated the issues that challenge our communities,” she wrote in a response for comment from Norwood News.

 

Critical to the program’s success, however, is Banks’ insistence that the community be heard before the funds are distributed.  “Attorney General James’ visiting and listening to our communities to bring a measure of justice that will address the exponential harm that Big Pharma has perpetrated gives us both hope, and the needed resources across the multiple areas of need and expect that we will all be at that table,” Banks added. She summed up her philosophy with just five words, “Nothing for us without us.”

 

For her part, Biaggi said the pandemic had only exacerbated this opioid crisis in the Bronx. “Opioid manufacturers and distributors have played a major role in enabling this nationwide epidemic, and I am grateful to Attorney General James for standing up against these companies and fighting for those affected,” she said. “These funds will allow us to assist the communities who have been devastated the most by this crisis and put our state on a path to recovery.”

 

These sentiments were echoed by Dinowitz who also thanked James’ for what he said was her incredible work to secure more than a billion dollars in settlement money for local communities to have better access to support services and for people to recover from addiction and get their lives back together. “I am proud to celebrate today’s first delivery of resources to Lincoln Hospital here in the Bronx, and look forward to more great work stemming from the opioid settlement fund and Attorney General James,” the assemblyman said.

 

Meanwhile, Luis Laboy is chairperson of the Bronx Council on Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders and has lived most of his life in the South Bronx. Holding two Master’s degrees, one from Fordham University and another from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the 61-year-old sees an opportunity for the settlement funds to make an impact in the hardest hit communities.

 

“I do appreciate Letitia James, the attorney general, for her relentless advocacy and support to provide resources to combat […] the issues we are experiencing in the Bronx with drug use,” he told Norwood News in a phone interview on Tuesday, Oct. 19.

 

On the other hand, Laboy said he notices there has been pushback in certain communities, especially by some business owners, when more addiction treatment services are proposed. “They are confused with these programs that are housing people, that have a history of homelessness, with treatment programs,” he said. “So, they say, ‘Oh, we have too many treatment programs.’”

 

Laboy said the South Bronx really needs more treatment programs, however, and hopes that the influx of funds will not only support more programs, but will also educate the public on the different needs of those who live on the margins of the community.

Over the past two weeks, we went to 18 counties across New York to meet with communities and provide up to $1.5 billion in funds to fight the opioid epidemic.

From Buffalo to Long Island and the North Country, this money will be vital to ending the devastation caused by opioids. pic.twitter.com/SYYluJGJIX

— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) October 16, 2021

In the context of the NY Heal campaign announcement, Espaillat said the opioid crisis had devastated families across the region and touched far too many lives. “Here in New York City, the rate of fatal overdoses reached an all-time high during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s time to reverse this course and help families recover and get their lives back on track,” the congressman said. “I am proud to join Attorney General James as part of today’s effort to help families heal and to help our communities and our state overcome the opioid epidemic, once and for all.”

 

Provisional data from NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (DOH) indicates that from January to September 2020, at least 1,446 individuals died of a drug overdose in New York City. More than 75 percent of these overdose deaths involved fentanyl— a potent opioid that carries a high overdose risk.

 

Meanwhile, a 2019 DOH health indicator report found at the borough level, in 2019, there were 423 unintentional overdoses in the Bronx, followed by 383 in Manhattan, 331 in Brooklyn, 234 in Queens and 92 on Staten Island.

 

Across the City, Fordham-Bronx Park had the fourth highest rate per 100,000 residents of unintentional overdose deaths during the same year, after Hunts Point-Mott Haven, Highbridge-Morrisania, and Crotona-Tremont.

 

During the first half of 2021, 4,765 life-saving Naloxone kits were assigned to police precincts in the Bronx, 5,948 police officers were trained on how to use the kits, and Naloxone was administered 36 times by Bronx police officers during this period, including once at Kingsbridge Road subway station on Saturday, June 26, as previously reported.

So far, the attorney general’s office confirmed it has received settlement funds from Endo and the Sackler family, including the foundations they control. The case against Mallinckrodt is in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, and the trials for the two remaining defendants, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and Allergan Finance, are currently underway in state court.

 

The pending verdicts or settlements are expected to increase the amount of funds New York City and State will receive, though exact figures are not yet known. “More funds are coming from more settlements,” James said.

 

Since the event, the attorney general has been on a tour of the State’s ten regions, encompassing 62 counties, to announce each region’s share of the settlement money in combating the opioid crisis.

 

“We sued “Big Pharma” and now they’re paying for the tragedy, for the death, for the destruction, and the carnage that they have caused all across the State of New York,” James said. “[Today] is a good day but it comes at the end of a long night of suffering and loss and tragedy.”

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.