After months of calls from advocates to reform Mississippi’s opioid settlement distribution process, the state Legislature has proposed changes to better ensure more than $400 million of lawsuit money will be used to prevent overdose deaths. 

The Senate and the House offered bill amendments Tuesday that would change how the state and its local governments can spend about $421 million from lawsuits against some of the country’s largest corporations. The Legislature, with the help of a state advisory council, is distributing most of those funds, but about $63 million of that is going directly to 147 local governments. 

Mississippi joined all other states and the District of Columbia to accuse the drug companies of dangerous business practices that led to unprecedented rates of drug overdose deaths. The state started receiving money in 2022 but spent less of it to address addiction than anywhere else in the U.S.

That spending delay has been caused by multiple issues Mississippi Today investigated over the last year. The newsroom found that Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch allowed for as much money as possible to be spent on issues other than addiction, and local governments were using millions of it on general expenses. Mississippi Today also found that some state advisory council members could benefit from grants they helped assess. 

Mississippians who’ve struggled with addiction, family members of those who died of overdoses and public health experts have decried the way state and local officials managed money paid out for the harm done to those who suffered. 

The amendments in both chambers addressed these issues before an important legislative deadline. In the House Public Health and Human Services Committee meeting, Republican Chairman Sam Creekmore passed an amendment that would shift how local governments could spend the portion they control.

The New Albany lawmaker proposed changing Fitch’s arrangement so that the local governments couldn’t deposit settlement payments into a general expense account and prevent them from using the money on anything other than additional overdose prevention efforts. Creekmore’s amendment prioritizes addiction treatment, harm reduction and recovery efforts for these local dollars.

Additionally, that bill now requires using money Fitch designated for the Legislature’s general fund to contract with a third-party group that can help the state government better distribute hundreds of millions of state dollars. It’s a reform members of the opioid settlement advisory council have called for and Fitch has indicated she’s open to.

The bill still does not require local governments to report their spending. Creekmore told Mississippi Today Wednesday morning should it pass, the third party would ensure they comply with the new rules. 

“We’re honoring people’s lives to save other lives,” Creekmore said. “It’s blood money.” 

On the Senate side Tuesday, Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford, also amended a bill addressing Mississippi’s opioid settlement laws. She proposed strengthening the advisory council’s ethics and conflict of interest prevention rules at the Senate Judiciary A Committee meeting, reviving language from a bill that died earlier in the legislative session.

Boyd’s reforms also include giving the Legislature more authority to override recommendations from the advisory council, a power Tricia Christensen, an opioid settlement expert, cautioned lawmakers against using. Boyd did not respond to calls and voicemail asking about her amendment. 

Fitch’s office has not responded to multiple emails asking for her thoughts about possible opioid settlement legislative reforms since the session began in January. 

Creekmore said he expects himself, Boyd and four other state lawmakers to iron out the details of House and Senate proposals during a conference committee meeting later this month. He said he hasn’t had much communication with senators about this bill, but he thinks they’ll be amenable to his proposals. 

Creekmore said he may also suggest more changes before trying to send the legislation to the Governor’s desk.

“The bill’s got a lot of work still to be done.”