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# Verite News (28 May 2026)
- URL: https://news.opioidpolicy.org/verite-news-28-may-2026/
- Published: 2026-05-28T15:42:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-23T15:42:56.000Z
- Description: East Grand Rapids has approximately $42,871 in settlement funds that have yet to be used
- Author: Jonathan JK Stoltman (PhD)
- Tags: In the News, Policy, Opioid Settlement Money

# [Jefferson Parish, which has seen the most overdose deaths in the state, is getting tens of millions in opioid settlement money. But it has yet to spend much of it.](https://veritenews.org/2026/05/28/opioid-settlement-jefferson-parish/)

Jefferson Parish is a suburban parish that will receive $65 million in opioid settlements. In the three years since they started receiving the first chunk of money, the only way they have spent it is on a new drug court. And, as you might have guessed...we have *thoughts...* 

> Jonathan Stoltman directs the Opioid Policy Institute, a nonprofit that tracks how communities spend opioid settlement money nationwide. He said Jefferson Parish’s approach raises a fundamental question.   
>  
> “When I think of money spent on a drug court, my first question is always, how was that identified as the most pressing need for this money?” he said.   
>  
> Drug courts aren’t necessarily a bad use of funds, Stoltman said. But it puts treatment at the discretion of judges, who may or may not know best practices when it comes to addiction medicine. A judge might assume that “going cold turkey” — stopping all drug and alcohol use immediately and without additional support — is better than [medication-assisted treatment](https://americanaddictioncenters.org/addiction-medications).  
>  
> “A judge isn’t a doctor. And when we think about a medical issue, we should be having people working with doctors, not with judges,” he said.

Keep in mind that Jefferson Parish has the highest rate of opioid-related overdoses in Louisiana.

> “Understandably, a lot of blame goes towards the companies for creating the crisis,” Stoltman said. “But the crisis was a crisis because we had no public health infrastructure to respond to it, or the public health infrastructure was inadequate.”

<https://veritenews.org/2026/05/28/opioid-settlement-jefferson-parish/>

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