WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — It's been nearly two months since the state was scheduled to begin receiving funds from a national opioid settlement. 


What You Need To Know

  • North Carolina will receive $750 million of the $26 billion opioid settlement

  • Eighty-five percent of the funds will go to communities to support strategies to fight opioid addiction

  • The Twin City Harm Reduction Collective in Forsyth County said it plans to use the funds to expand services to keep up with a sharp rise in demand

North Carolina will get $750 million of the $26 billion agreement.

According to the state attorney general, 85% of the funds will go directly to communities to support strategies to address the opioid epidemic. The rest will go to the state.,

According to the N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition website, harm reduction programs strive to help people who use drugs by bringning them closer to health services and transform drug policy. 

One harm reduction organization in Forsyth County said it is already making plans to use its portion of the funds to expand services to keep up with a sharp increase in demand. 

"Fentanyl, even though it’s much, much stronger, doesn’t last as long, so people are injecting more. So we’re going to more syringes and the Narcan. Of course, we’ve seen a skyrocketing number of overdoses, and overdose reversal in the last two or three years," said Rachel Thornley, executive director of the Twin City Harm Reduction Collective.

Data from the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner shows that nearly 3,961 suspected overdoses, many of them from opioids or Fentanyl, occurred in the state over the course of a year.