Mecklenburg County discusses how to spend $32M to help fight opioid crisis

CHARLOTTE — The state Department of Health and Human Services said that from 2000 through 2020, over 28,000 North Carolinians lost their lives to drug overdoses.

Mecklenburg County now has the resources it needs to fight back against the opioid epidemic.

Over the next 18 years, Mecklenburg County will receive over $32 million to be used toward solutions in the opioid crisis.

That money is part of a national settlement.

“Mecklenburg County was one of the first counties that got on board when we realized there might be some funds available because of fentanyl that has been distributed throughout the community,” County Chair George Dunlap said Tuesday.

County leaders held a community meeting last week to discuss how the money will be used.

County manager Dina Diorio said last week that the goal is to put the money toward 10 high-impact strategies.

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“They fall under the area of prevention, treatment and recovery, and those are articulated coming out of this meeting,” Diorio said. “All of those strategies, in which ones are most important and where we want to focus our energies.”

Diorio said that leaders will put together a funding plan over the next few months before handing it off to county commissioners.

Commissioner Pat Cotham said Tuesday that she wants the county to use some of the funding on mental health education.

“I have gone to a lot of funerals of people who have died from overdoses and it is gut-wrenching when a mother said to me, ‘I thought my daughter was a drama queen,’” Cotham said. “She had no idea she had depression and anxiety.”

Several commissioners also are in favor of early intervention measures, including syringe service programs and needle exchanges.

The CDC said that with support, it can prevent overdoses and infections.

“I do think that is very important and besides having an exchange, it gives people the opportunity to have a conversation,” Cotham said.

“The things that rose to the top is early intervention, trying to prevent folks into falling into opioid addictions and so I think prevention is a big key,” Commissioner Susan Rodriguez-McDowell said.

The county could also offer fentanyl testing strips, which people could use on cocaine to make sure fentanyl is not present.

The county partners with Queen City Harm Reduction Services, which is a nonprofit that provides services to people who use drugs and people at a high risk for Hepatitis C, HIV and overdosing.

Funds will be given to organizations to combat the opioid crisis after a plan is approved.

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