The board overseeing allocation of opioid settlement funding does not allow public comment at its meetings, and activists and grassroots community members say they’re frustrated, reports Spotlight PA.
Formed in 2022, the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse & Addiction Abatement Trust is charged with distributing funds from the nationwide opioid settlements and ensuring that recipients use the funds in accordance with the settlements’ terms. Pennsylvania is expecting to receive more than $1 billion over 18 years from the first wave of settlements alone.
The trust is overseen by a 13-member board. Its meetings are open to the public; however, no provision for public comment is made. Advocates complain that the policy prevents them from offering relevant feedback.
Gail Groves Scott is an opioid policy researcher and advocate. She has pressed for more openness by the state trust and at multiple Lancaster County commissioners’ meetings. It’s “disappointing” that the trust hasn’t changed course, she told Spotlight PA.
The trust’s director, Briana Anderson, told the publication that the public is encouraged to participate in allocation discussions at the local level, and that the state board’s role is merely to review those decisions.
According to Spotlight PA, there are at least 39 boards like Pennsylvania’s overseeing opioid settlement money in other states and the District of Columbia. Out of the 40, at least 14 disallow public comments at their meetings; four of them — the ones in New Jersey, Utah, Alaska and Hawaii — conduct their meetings in private, out of public view entirely.
By way of contrast, the outlet cites examples such as Tennessee’s Opioid Abatement Council. Shutting out the public would be “unconscionable,” its chair, Stephen Lloyd, is quoted as saying.
Spotlight PA’s article was written in partnership with KFF Health News. To read it in full, click here.
