🤔 Two New OPI Tools for Communities 🤓
Many of the opioid settlement conversations are happening behind closed doors, buried in legal filings, or scattered across platforms owned by companies that profit from your attention and your data.
That changes today.
We're launching two new, free community tools built for advocates, run on non-Big Tech infrastructure, and designed from the ground up to respect your privacy.
The OPI Discussion Boards: discuss.opioidpolicy.org
We created a place to talk about what's happening with opioid settlement money and other opioid policy issues. Every state and topic has its own space, or you can create your own! You don't need a law degree or a policy background to participate.
This isn't Facebook. There's no algorithm deciding what you see. No ads. No data harvesting. No corporate owner who can shut down the conversation. It's a forum, one of the oldest ways the internet has empowered communities to share what they know, ask questions, and hold power accountable together. We support conversations in English and Spanish!
Sign up to be a moderator or just join the discussion!
The OPI Settlement Wiki: wiki.opioidpolicy.org
A publicly readable, state-by-state reference for how opioid settlement funds are structured and spent across the country. Share how your state, tribe, local government, or US territory is planning, spending, evaluating, overseeing, and enforcing opioid settlement money.
We built the wiki because this information shouldn't require a FOIA request or a JD to understand. Settlement agreements are dense by design with layers of legalese that make it harder for ordinary people to know what is going on. The wiki translates that complexity into plain language. All in one place and all owned by the community.
The wiki is open to community editing. If you want to contribute, create an account and start writing. The people closest to the problem are the ones who should be documenting it. Available in English and Spanish!
Sign up to be a moderator or visit the wiki to learn more!
Why we built this outside Big Tech
Every piece of OPI's infrastructure runs on privacy-respecting, independent systems. No Google. No Meta. No Microsoft. No tracking pixels. No third-party analytics watching what you read or who you talk to.
This matters more than it used to. In a political environment where surveillance is expanding and digital rights are eroding, the platforms we build and use are important decisions.
We chose to develop tools that serve and uplift you. Like all of our resources, these tools are free for you. They aren't free for us, but it's essential to work in a principled, thoughtful way when it comes to technology. That does come with a cost, but consider this another service we offer the community. And if you dig it, we accept contributions to keep OPI cookin.
Your forum account is managed through our authentication system, and it is not linked to Google, not tied to a social media profile, and not feeding your information into an ad network. When you sign up, you're joining our community, not becoming a product.
You might be wondering if an internet-based discussion board can ever truly be private? The answer is... not really. Hacks happen even to billion-dollar message boards like Reddit. So we turned off direct messages that give the illusion of privacy. For public comments and posts, we encourage you to act like what you're posting might at some point be tied to your name. That's good practice anyhow, and we think it will lead to a kinder, more thoughtful space. That said, you can use a sorta anonymous username, but just know that at some point someone might connect the dots when you're running for president or something.
Plain language is a political act
One more thing. We write in plain language, especially on the wiki, because gatekeeping with legalese and complicated writing is a tool of control. When policy documents are written so that only lawyers and lobbyists can understand them, that's not an accident. It keeps regular people out of conversations about their communities.
OPI's wiki, forum, and all of our published work reject that model. Accessible writing at a 5th grade level isn't about dumbing things down. It's about opening the door.
Get involved
Join the conversation at discuss.opioidpolicy.org
Create an account, introduce yourself, and start connecting with advocates across the country or in your state.
Browse the wiki at wiki.opioidpolicy.org
Find your state and see how settlement funds are being managed. Does something need to be updated? Sign up and suggest an edit. It's your resource.
Why Trust Us?
Jonathan Stoltman, PhD
Jonathan has worked as a researcher and advocate focusing on opioid addiction treatment and recovery since 2013. He completed his PhD in Lifespan Developmental Psychology from West Virginia University in 2019. Jonathan’s academic work has appeared in leading journals, conferences, and media outlets. He has been working on opioid settlement-related topics since 2020.
Why You Can Trust OPI
The Opioid Policy Institute exists to help communities improve their response to opioid-related death and disease. We provide evidence-based research and analysis that translates complex legal guidance and public health research into practical, usable insights. Our focus is on transparency, accountability, and community healing by increasing access to evidence-based prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery supports.
OPI’s analysis reflects a collaborative, team-based approach. We blend real-world and academic experience to help ensure our work is methodologically sound, grounded in evidence, and attentive to real-world implementation challenges. We focus on asking the right questions, surfacing tradeoffs, and helping communities build robust responses to addiction.
Opioid Policy Institute by Jonathan JK Stoltman, PhD is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
