How have millions of opioid settlement dollars been spent?

Well, a new county by county dashboard from the Kentucky Attorney General's office shows exactly that.

Our June Lefler has more on how Kentuckians can now see how that money flows.

Drug companies have had to pay for their role in the opioid crisis.

Over the next decade, they'll have paid out $1 billion to Kentucky communities to keep fighting overdoses and addiction.

Data on how every Kentucky county and city spends that money is now available online through the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission's website.

The commission's director says, quote, this is the first time we can accurately show what resources are coming into Kentucky to battle the opioid epidemic and how they are being used.

This information will allow Kentuckians to maximize the opportunity we have before us to save lives and change the trajectory of substance misuse in the Commonwealth.

The Commission is part of the Attorney General's Office.

The dashboard summary shows that local governments have spent only a fraction of their funds.

City and counties have spent just 12% of allocated funds, while the state has spent most of its funds.

Many local governments, like the Lexington Fayette Urban County government, have not used any settlement money to fight addiction.

That's disappointing for this Lexington based harm reduction organizer.

I've also watched someone using the locks on trade.

We handed them just days before to save another person's life.

That's what boots on the ground harm reduction look like.

Lexington is one of the counties that has just been sitting on it and not been doing anything.

So, we've had a bunch of people there at the different, town hall committees, the hearings and everything else, and it's just, they don't know what they're doing.

So the data shows most money spent went to treatment and recovery, followed by prevention efforts.

The data counts for three years, ending at fiscal year 2025.

The University of Kentucky's Rapid Actionable Data for response, or rider helped create the dashboard.

This year, that team rolled out a tool for communities to better prevent and respond to drug overdoses.

Using predictive data analysis for Kentucky Edition I'm Jen Leffler.

Thank you so much, June.

This dashboard came online just one week after a left leaning think tank released their findings on opioid settlement funding spending.

The group says not every dollar has been spent wisely.

It found in fiscal year 2025, $1.6 million went to ineffective efforts or to supplement standard city operating budgets.