opioid crisis

It's been about three years since millions of dollars started flowing into Michigan — and other states — to help fight the opioid crisis. Many communities have been slow to spend much of it. Or any of it. That includes Grand Traverse County.

Grand Traverse County and other Michigan communities have been slow to spend money meant to battle the opioid crisis. A report from the Attorney General’s office will offer more details this spring.

Opioid settlements with companies like Purdue Pharma, Walmart, and Johnson & Johnson have led to headline-grabbing multibillion-dollar payouts. But most of the windfall is flowing to state and local governments, not directly to victims of the crisis.

The county is set to receive over $1.5 million over the next two decades.

As millions of dollars flow to Michigan communities from opioid distributors, some up-north counties are electing to wait to start spending.

A business in Empire puts energy improvements on hold amid a federal funding freeze. We hear your thoughts on the next four years. And the alligator under the bed.

Ever walked by some newspaper boxes and noticed some aren’t filled with papers, but medicine? Chances are that medicine can help reverse an opioid overdose.

Michigan counties, townships and cities will split about $725 million in opioid settlement funds over 18 years, with communities harder hit by the opioid crisis receiving more money per capita.

As Traverse City's airport expands, officials see an opportunity to address climate change. Also, the difficulty of tracking how opioid settlement dollars are spent. We'll hear how an old asylum in Traverse City inspired a new novel. And we meet the journalist behind a newsletter that's by, for and about the Indigenous people of Michigamiing (Michigan).

Aneri Pattani, senior reporter for KFF Health News breaks down the differences in transparency between states that are spending opioid settlement dollars.