A new bill in the Maryland General Assembly will give the state unprecedented oversight over how state and local governments spend money received from opioid settlement over the coming years.
The bill, introduced by Sen. Malcom Augustine (D-Prince George’s), requires the Maryland Department of Health and the Maryland Office of Overdose Response to maintain an online dashboard that tracks how governments are using money from the Opioid Restitution Fund.
“There's even more urgency on us making sure that we maintain and keep information available as far as how we are managing our various health situations, including the opioid crisis,” Augustine told the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday.
The state received more than $200 million from seven different settlements in 2024. This year, it will bring in about $670 million.
The law requires that the money goes to overdose prevention, opioid recovery and education. Maryland has an advisory council that makes recommendations on how to best spend the money.
However, many states that signed on to settlements with opioid companies find it hard to properly manage the money they receive.
According to Kirsten Pendergrass, the vice president of state policy at Shatterproof, a nonprofit that focuses on addiction, states are unable to account for $2 billion of the $6 billion they received from settlements in 2022 and 2023.
“We don't know if it's been spent or where it's been spent,” Pendergrass said. “In Maryland, we know that in those two years, 2022, and 2023, $95 million was received, but more than $29 million of that is unknown, and much of that is municipal spending, where we just don't have any public reporting about where that money is going.”
The Maryland Association of Counties spoke in favor of the bill. The legislation would require Maryland counties and municipalities to report how they spend opioid funding.
“There's no way for us to get around not reporting,” said Sarah Sample, associate policy director at the Maryland Association of Counties. “Even money that goes directly to the local jurisdictions has to be audited by the state. We have standards that we have to comply with and certain reports that we have to submit for all that funding. So, we're happy to comply.”
Even though the money is supposed to go purely to overdose response, prevention and education, there are other Maryland agencies that want to broaden that definition.
Legislation introduced by Sen. Arthur Ellis (D-Charles County) would give the state Attorney General’s Office $1.5 million yearly from the Maryland Opioid Restitution Fund.
“What we're asking for is an amendment to the Opioid Restitution Fund, which already includes administrative costs as a permissible expense, and to clarify that that shall fund the Opioid Enforcement Unit in the Office of the Attorney General,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown told the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday. “Without this funding, we run the risk that we're not going to be able to continue our enforcement activities. This would reduce future recoveries and limit resources.”
The AG’s office was appropriated $1.5 million in Gov. Wes Moore’s 2026 budget from the fund, however, Brown said he did not want to have to fight yearly for the money.
Opioid recovery advocates across the nation have had concerns about some of the ways opioid settlement funds have been spent.
In some areas settlement money has been used to buy police cars or even pay down government debts.
