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Michigan AG prepares to receive opioid settlement money

Preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control show the number of people who died of drug overdoses in a single year in the U.S. is at an all-time high.
Tom - Stock.Adobe.Com
Preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control show the number of people who died of drug overdoses in a single year in the U.S. is at an all-time high.

Michigan’s attorney general is preparing for the state to start getting its part of a $26-billion-dollar settlement with some of the nation’s top opioid distributors.

Dana Nessel visited a Saginaw addiction treatment center on Monday.
Michigan’s state and local governments are set to receive around $800-million-dollars of that multi-state settlement.

But Nessel says she’s concerned about how long it will take lawmakers to spend it.

 “You guys are supposed to be serving the communities that you represent, and you’re not helping them by not appropriating this money. And I think they’re getting the message, so I’m hopeful that they’re not going to sit on these dollars. They’re going to start coming in next month.”

During Nessel’s visit, she told providers lawmakers still haven’t spent millions of dollars from a years-old opioid settlement. That one related to a consulting company that worked with Purdue Pharma.