The commission deciding how New Hampshire will spend millions of dollars received from a settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors plans to use $9.4 million to reimburse six county corrections departments and one local police department for past expenses related to the drug crisis.
The bulk of that money will go to county jails, to offset some of what they spent on addiction treatment for incarcerated people between July 2020 and May 2023.
The Seabrook Police Department is also in line to receive about $955,000 for unspecified “opioid abatement programs” during the same period.
Publicly available grant documents don’t describe what those activities were. Seabrook Police Chief Brett Walker said he couldn’t comment until the contract was approved, due to confidentiality rules.
Seabrook is the only police department, and only town, included in this round of funding.
New Hampshire’s Executive Council is set to vote on the contracts Wednesday.
The state has already received tens of millions of dollars from legal settlements with drug makers, distributors and pharmacy chains accused of fueling the decades-long opioid crisis. Officials have said New Hampshire could see as much as $300 million over the next two decades. All of that money must be used to address the impacts of opioid addiction in the state.
New Hampshire’s Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission is deciding how to spend most of that money. The panel includes state lawmakers; state, county and local officials; members of law enforcement; and public health and addiction professionals.
One allowable use of settlement funds under state law is helping jails pay for medication-assisted addiction treatment for incarcerated people, including retroactively to 2020.
Medications like Suboxone and methadone are among the most effective treatments for opioid addiction, and a 2020 state law requires New Hampshire jails to offer such treatments when medically appropriate.
Rockingham County Department of Corrections Superintendent Jason Henry, who also sits on the commission, said counties “took on a very large burden of creating programs and establishing medication assisted treatment.” He estimates Rockingham County spends about $500,000 per year on medication-assisted treatment for incarcerated people.
At least five of the commission’s members are county officials from different parts of the state. Henry said he did not review or vote on this round of grants as Rockingham County was one of the applicants, receiving about $2 million. He said the same was true of other commission members with a conflict of interest.
Towns and cities can also seek reimbursement for opioid-related “emergency response services” provided by police and other first responders.
In addition to Seabrook and Rockingham County, the commission is recommending the following grants:
- $2,085,873 to reimburse Sullivan County for unspecified opioid abatement programs
- $1,486,777 to reimburse Cheshire County for substance use and mental health treatment through the county jail
- $1,411,948 to reimburse Strafford County for medication assisted treatment and “abstinence-based” treatment
- $926,655 to reimburse Merrimack County for medication-assisted treatment through the Department of Corrections
- $527,786 to reimburse Hillsborough County for medication-assisted treatment
This is the second round of grants recommended by the commission. In May, the Executive Council approved $6.5 million in funding for programs aiming to expand harm reduction and peer support services, create more recovery-oriented housing, strengthen the behavioral health care workforce and address youth substance use, among other things.
In addition, 15% of all settlement funds are going directly to cities, towns and counties in New Hampshire that filed their own lawsuits against drug companies.
Some counties have been using that money to pay for drug treatment in jails, as well. In fiscal years 2022 and 2023, for example, Hillsborough County spent about $600,000 of those funds on medication-assisted treatment and another treatment program at the Valley Street jail.
