A state gave sheriffs 20% of its opioid settlement cash. We followed the money

Every state is receiving opioid settlement payouts from companies accused of flooding the nation with prescription painkillers and fueling overdose deaths. Louisiana is the only state directing 20% of those payouts to sheriffs — the largest carve-out for law enforcement nationwide. In Louisiana, sheriffs are elected, do not serve at the pleasure of another local official, and have independent budgets, and they are not required to proactively report how they spend the settlement cash. Short of filing public records requests or waiting for official audits, it has been difficult for the public to track the windfall, which many consider 'blood money' that should be spent on abating the addiction crisis.

KFF Health News worked with three Louisiana outlets — The Current, Gulf States Newsroom, and Verite News — to track the dollars. The newsrooms contacted all 64 Louisiana sheriffs over five months, often filing public records requests, to produce the first detailed accounting of millions spent.

Thirty-eight sheriffs reported spending more than $8.1 million total. Much of it went to crime-fighting equipment such as surveillance cameras and drug detection products, though smaller amounts funded mobile apps, addiction treatment in jails, and educational programs for youth. A three-person review panel — a Louisiana resident in recovery who lost his son to a fentanyl overdose, an addiction medicine doctor, and a public health policy analyst tracking settlement dollars since 2022 — deemed $5.4 million (about 66% of reported spending) inappropriate. Disapproved expenditures included salaries and overtime pay for homicide detectives and officers conducting jail shakedowns to find contraband. Additionally, $4.7 million (nearly 60% of reported spending) went to items or services that other states say should not be purchased with opioid cash; six states have lists of 'unallowable' expenditures, such as technology to extract data from cellphones and automated external defibrillators, which are rarely needed in opioid overdoses. Louisiana has no such list, but its Opioid Abatement Task Force — a five-member body that advises sheriffs and parishes but does not control the money — has shared guidance from other states.

Nine sheriffs stood out for promising uses: all of their expenditures, totaling nearly $1.8 million, were deemed appropriate by the review panel and allowable in other states. These included providing addiction treatment in jail, training officers to respond to overdoses, and increasing public awareness of addiction resources. The excerpt also begins to note that twenty sheriffs did not provide records before cutting off.