REGIONAL — St. Louis County continues to expand its long-term work to reduce opioid addiction and overdoses using money from national settlements with drug manufacturers and distributors.
The county is projected to receive about $18 million over 18 years, a dedicated stream of funding for treatment, prevention, harm reduction, and recovery services that does not draw on local tax dollars. Much of that work is already in motion, and county staff will offer a brief public update next week for city and township partners, with the session open to the public.
Opioids include prescription painkillers, heroin, and fentanyl. They are a different drug class from methamphetamine, which is not covered by these settlements. Although meth dominates many of the local headlines around drug activity, county officials say the opioid epidemic has taken a heavier toll on emergency responders and on the people most at risk of overdose. The funds can be used only for opioid-related impacts.
The settlements stem from thousands of lawsuits filed nationwide against opioid manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacy chains that contributed to addiction and overdose trends over the past two decades. Minnesota’s share totals roughly $568 million, with 75 percent directed to counties and eligible cities. St. Louis County is set to receive one of the state’s larger allocations due to its population and the severity of local opioid harms.
Those harms have increased sharply. According to county data, 911 calls for opioid-involved overdoses rose 225 percent between 2018 and 2022. Fatal overdoses involving synthetic opioids have risen dramatically over the past decade, increasing more than 1,200 percent since 2011. Drug use in the household is cited in about two-thirds of the county’s cases where children are removed from their homes and placed in alternative care.
The county has directed the first rounds of funding into a mix of harm reduction, recovery, youth support, justice-involved programs, and public education. A significant portion has gone to harm reduction services, including widespread Narcan distribution, expansion of syringe services, and increased access to fentanyl test strips. Funding has also provided for street outreach efforts in Duluth and rural communities to engage people experiencing homelessness.
Recovery supports have expanded as well, including peer recovery programming, one-on-one assistance, and monthly recovery events across the county. Youth prevention saw new investment through the United Way’s Lunch Buddies mentoring program, which reports improved school engagement and emotional wellbeing among participating students.
The county also used funds to strengthen supports for people leaving incarceration, including transitional housing and access to Sublocade, a long-acting medication used to prevent relapse. In addition, the county has funded three years of staffing for two Sheriff’s Office deputies focused on enforcement and community outreach related to opioid impacts. Public education campaigns, including the One Pill Can Kill initiative, are being used to raise awareness about the dangers of counterfeit pills and synthetic opioids.
Because these settlement payments will continue for nearly two decades, St. Louis County is planning for long-term investments that can evolve over time. Early rounds have focused heavily on harm reduction, while later phases may shift toward expanding treatment capacity, housing stability, and prevention for youth and families. The initiatives are overseen by an advisory committee formed in 2022 that includes public health officials, law enforcement, behavioral health providers, treatment experts, and people with lived experience.
The upcoming session on Tuesday, Dec. 9 is a 30-minute WebEx overview and listening session led by Public Health and Human Services staff. Jana Blomberg, the county’s program coordinator, said the session will cover the history of the settlement funds, how the county has been using them, how much money the county is projected to receive, and the next steps in strategic planning. The session is aimed at staff and volunteers from cities and townships but is open for anyone to listen in.
Access information for the session:
Date: Tuesday, Dec. 9
Time: 1 to 1:30 p.m.
Format: WebEx virtual meeting
Meeting number: 2537 649 0525
Password: 2025
Enter the meeting number and password at webex.com/join to access the session.