The audio version of this story is AI generated and is not human reviewed. It may contain errors or inaccuracies. At the midpoint of the three-month legislative session, two leading lawmakers say they are working to ensure tens of millions of state opioid settlement dollars are spent to address addi ction. House Public Health and Human Services Chairman Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, and Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford, have both sponsored bills that would change the state’s opioid settlement laws. Now that the bills have each passed one chamber, Creekmore said he plans to meet with Boyd to figure out what new provisions would lead to more responsible local spending of the settlement money.  Since 2022, 147 towns, cities and counties throughout Mississippi have been receiving money from national opioid lawsuits, cases that charged about a dozen companies with contributing to over 10,000 Mississippi overdose deaths. When first arguing these cases, lawyers for Mississippi said money was needed to address the public health epidemic the companies created. But when those local governments signed on to the lawsuits, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch told them they could spend their shares on any public purpose without reporting how those dollars were used. Those shares are expected to total over $60 million by 2040, but Fitch’s arrangement wasn’t widely publicized until September, when Mississippi Today published results of its months-long investigation into spending. The Mississippi Today investigation found that local government officials had received over $15.5 million in opioid settlements but spent less than $1 million on ways to prevent more overdoses. Cities and counties had spent around $5.4 million on other expenses, mostly to supplement their general budgets. Each year since 2022, Mississippi has been paid tens of millions of opioid settlement dollars, money that is supposed to help respond to the overdose public health crisis. But 15% of those dollars — the money controlled by the state’s towns, cities and counties — is unrestricted and being spent with almost no public knowledge. Mississippi Today spent the summer finding out how almost every local government receiving money has been managing the money over the past three years.Read The Series Jane Clair Tyner, a Pine Belt resident whose son died while struggling with opioid addiction, said it wasn’t until speaking with Mississippi Today last year that she learned cities and counties could spend their money on purchases unrelated to addiction. “It was a literal punch in my gut when I read that,” Tyner said. “It was a desecration to every grave that every parent in this state has mourned over, of their lost child to this epidemic.”  When asked why Fitch made this decision, her office has said the opioid epidemic cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars, and the lawsuits allowed for some settlement money to repay governments for past expenses. A spokesperson for her office didn’t respond to an email asking for Fitch’s thoughts on new legislative efforts. A few weeks after the investigation was published, Creekmore said he wanted to address the problem. On Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast, he said he would look to pass legislation that would change how local governments could spend their opioid settlement shares.  Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, discusses opioid settlement legislation during an interview at the Mississippi Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today On Wednesday, Creekmore restated his commitment to creating requirements for local governments to address addiction. He said he doesn’t want the legislation to be too cumbersome for small cities and counties with few resources.  New laws, he said, should include examples of organizations doing overdose prevention work that local officials can send settlement money to — such as community mental health centers. He’s also looking for ways to bring in a third party to oversee how cities and counties spend their funds. “They’re concerned how they spend the money, and they’re looking for guidance,” he said. “Even some of the larger cities.” Boyd said she and the other senators plan to follow Creekmore and the House’s lead on reforming opioid settlement laws.  When Mississippi Today told Tyner about Creekmore’s plan to eliminate using local opioid settlement dollars on general expenses, she said she felt hopeful. But she’s seen guidelines intended to ensure this money gets spent on addressing addiction leave room for loopholes in other states, and she hopes future laws will ensure money gets spent on addressing addiction beyond giving unrestricted money to mental health centers. While Tyner appreciates legislators’ avoiding the creation of cumbersome requirements for small town officials, she said preventing overdoses takes nuanced approaches.  “It is a complex issue,” she said. “So the manner in which we approach it to fix it cannot be simple.”  Mississippi Today published a database in September detailing how almost every local government in the state receiving opioid settlements is managing that money. Credit: Graphic by Bethany Atkinson Copiah County Administrator David Engel said he’s hopeful that legislators provide clear pathways to spending this money responsibly. He and the Board of Supervisors used about $74,000 in April to help fund the local drug court, but he said Copiah County has about $76,000 of additional settlement money that officials don’t want to spend until they hear how it could be used to prevent more overdoses.  Engel said if the state provided more examples of how this funding should be used, he would be willing to do extra work to track and publicize how Copiah County spends the money.  “I don’t mind jumping through the hoops as long as I get a little clarity,” he said.  But Engel also knows that the state is in its fourth year of receiving funds. Over 1,700 Mississippians have died of overdoses since the state received its first settlement check, and he believes this money could have saved some of those lives had cities and counties known how to use it effectively. “I don’t think there’s any question as to that.” ...read more read less