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Durham begins spending opioid settlement funds on harm reduction, peer supports and post‑overdose response
Summary
County opioid settlement program manager Jason Smith outlined a roughly $1.3 million FY2025–26 spending plan focused on naloxone distribution, syringe services, peer recovery supports and a post‑overdose response team, and described a community advisory process to guide future spending.
Durham County’s inaugural opioid settlement program manager, Jason Smith, briefed commissioners on Tuesday on the county’s multi-year opioid settlement and a recommended spending plan for fiscal 2025–26.
Smith said Durham’s settlement payments will be spread over many years and must be used for strategies that address opioid use disorder, co-occurring substance-use disorders or related mental-health conditions. "These funds must directly support strategies that address opioid use disorder, co‑occurring substance use disorders, or mental health conditions," Smith told the board.
For FY2025–26 Smith presented a near-term package of approximately $1.3 million that focuses on five state-approved Exhibit A strategy areas: collaborative strategic planning and advisory work; naloxone distribution and associated training; sterile syringe outreach; recovery support services (the county’s community linkages-to-care peer support program); and a post‑overdose response (PORT) team that performs rapid follow-up after nonfatal overdoses.
Smith and public-health staff said initial achievements include building a public dashboard to track monthly progress, filling a specialized harm-reduction outreach role, distributing more than 3,300 naloxone kits through vending machines and community partners, expanding mobile syringe distribution and adding community-paramedic capacity to respond rapidly after overdoses. The Community Linkages to Care program reported hundreds of outreach contacts and dozens of treatment linkages; Smith said 75 people entered treatment during the reporting period, including many for opioid use disorder.
The presentation also described an open planning process: the county will form a community-based advisory committee and publish a public dashboard that staff plan to update monthly; the committee’s input will be used to align spending with state-exhibit guidance and local needs.
Commissioners asked about how long the settlement runs and how much remains in fund balance. County staff said Durham has received multi‑year payments; staff later provided a fund-balance number in the meeting of about $4.6 million as of the end of fiscal 2024, with additional receipts and the planned FY2026 spending to be reflected in annual ordinance reports.
Smith emphasized priorities for next year: expand outreach staffing, sustain peer support positions, and plan for FY2027 if federal or other grants lapse; he also invited the board and community to an input session the following week to review the public dashboard and hear partner updates.
Ending: Commissioners said they would consider the FY2026 opioid settlement ordinance, which is separate from the main county budget ordinance, and welcomed the advisory process and public dashboard for tracking outcomes.
