A new training center in West Virginia

Jackson County built a police training center and shooting range in two thousand twenty-four using money from opioid settlements. Sheriff Ross Mellinger said the facilities host seminars for officers and E.M.T.s.

Fifty billion dollars promised to states

Companies including Johnson and Johnson, Walmart, CVS, and Cardinal Health agreed to pay around fifty billion dollars to all fifty states and the District of Columbia starting in two thousand twenty-two until the late twenty-thirties.

West Virginia's largest per-capita share

West Virginia was promised a billion dollars, the most money per capita of any state, because it has the highest rate of overdose deaths in the country. Jackson County received just under six hundred thousand dollars in two thousand twenty-four.

Sheriff allocates half to shooting range

Sheriff Mellinger petitioned the county commission to allocate about half of Jackson County's settlement money to the shooting range. The commission unanimously agreed and later earmarked another two hundred thousand dollars for the training center.

Teresa Evans questions the spending

Teresa Evans, a court reporter during West Virginia's trial against opioid manufacturers, began questioning the decision at public meetings. She asked whether the funds could be better spent on rehab centers or recovery groups instead.

“Do you see how lopsided this all seems?”

Kelly DeWees joins the criticism

Kelly Boggess DeWees, who has adopted three grandchildren and advocates for families affected by opioid addiction, joined Evans at public meetings. DeWees said the county was prioritizing police training over treatment.

“They're just up there trying to shoot better so they can kill addicts.”

Sheriff defends the investment

Sheriff Mellinger said the shooting range cost two hundred and seventy thousand dollars and is used about a dozen times a year. He argued that effective policing helps get people into treatment faster.

“If you get into a treatment facility here, it's because you probably got arrested or you overdosed.”

Settlement structured as public harm, not personal

The opioid settlement treats states and communities as the harmed parties rather than individual families of overdose victims. This follows the tobacco settlement model, which similarly treated damage as financial harm to states.

Eighty-five percent must go to remediation

To avoid repeating the tobacco settlement, where less than five percent went to smoking prevention, the opioid settlement requires eighty-five percent of money be spent directly on opioid remediation including treatment and syringe-service programs.

West Virginia's state foundation approach

Three-quarters of West Virginia's settlement money, eventually seven hundred million dollars, goes to the West Virginia First Foundation, which plans to invest it to earn interest in perpetuity. The foundation began spending interest in February two thousand twenty-five.

Foundation funds recovery and youth programs

The West Virginia First Foundation has received three hundred and eighty million dollars so far and disbursed eleven million dollars in its first year of spending. It has funded youth programs, a forty-eight bed recovery village in Berkeley County, and a crisis-response unit in Wheeling.

Money is moving too slowly nationwide

Jonathan Stoltman, who runs the Opioid Policy Institute, says settlement money is moving too slowly while the crisis continues. In Michigan, eighty percent of local government money had not been spent as of December two thousand twenty-five.

“The money is generally moving too slow, and we're actively in crisis.”

Tracking spending is nearly impossible

Christine Minhee, who runs the Opioid Settlement Tracker, says it is impossible to track all spending nationwide. Public-reporting requirements vary state to state, making it difficult to see the full picture of how money is being used.

“The reporting that does exist can be amazing, but it'll just be one piece of a fifty-state puzzle, and the rest of the pieces can be blurry.”

Supplantation redirects original funding

Some municipalities have used settlement money to pay for existing programs and pulled the original funding to pay for non-opioid-related expenses, a process called supplantation. Enforcement of restrictions on this practice lags far behind spending decisions.

“By the time we figure out the monitoring component, it will be done.”

Police spending dominates across the country

Municipalities nationwide have spent settlement money on law enforcement. Amherst County, Virginia spent seventy-five thousand dollars on police drones; Kane County, Illinois earmarked more than a million dollars on a forensics lab; Gulfport, Mississippi allocated two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to police surveillance.

West Virginia local governments favor law enforcement

In West Virginia in two thousand twenty-four and two thousand twenty-five, local governments spent nearly half their allotment on general law-enforcement expenses. Cabell County spent four hundred thousand dollars on two new deputy sheriffs; Wood County spent a hundred and eighty thousand dollars on Tasers.

More police spending in West Virginia counties

Mason County spent a hundred and forty thousand dollars on two police cruisers, fifty thousand dollars on a new sheriff's pickup, forty-four thousand dollars on a virtual-reality firearms-training system, thirty thousand dollars on Kevlar vests, and twenty thousand dollars on outfitting for a Ford F-one-fifty.

Breath of Life recovery group seeks funding

Kelly DeWees founded Breath of Life, a Christian recovery group formed by her daughter-in-law and son, both in recovery. DeWees has requested seventy thousand dollars from the county for meals and support, and the county has approved each request.

BoMar Club struggles to secure funding

Donna Coleman runs the BoMar Club, a drop-in center for people struggling with mental illness in Ripley. The club received just under thirty thousand dollars from the opioid settlement to fix its roof and bolster outreach, but Coleman is seeking more for floor repairs.

“Do you know how he educated me? He put handcuffs on me.”

DeWees plans to ask for more funding

After learning about the police training center, Kelly DeWees said she wants to ask the county commission for an eighty-eight thousand dollar rainy-day fund for Breath of Life. She warned that settlement money will eventually run out.

“Eventually that money is going to run out, and then where are we going to be?”