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.

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.

“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/