INDIANAPOLIS–You’ve heard about how opioid addiction can destroy families and kill people. Now Indiana is about to get a chunk of money from the opioid settlement to help combat those issues. Indianapolis may serve as a model for how cities around the state distribute that money.
At Monday night’s meeting the City-County Council approved the start of legislation that is expected to provide for how $3.7 million will be distributed.
“The Marion County coroner, Dept. of Metropolitan Development, Office of Public Health and Safety, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Dept., and Indianapolis Fire Dept.,” was the first reading of the proposed ordinance that goes first to the Public Safety committee.
Those agencies and their counterparts around the state have each fought an aspect or multiple aspects of the opioid crisis.
The coroner’s office has a big job to do when someone dies from an overdose. The money could be used to hire deputy coroners to help with the paperwork and investigations, said Marion County Coroner Alfie McGinty.
“That would be being able to provide mental health resources so that we can start to end the cycle of re-traumatization and increase awareness as it relates to substance use disorder and drug overdose deaths,” McGinty told our newsgathering partners at WISH-TV.
The city’s Office of Health and Public Safety may be able to hire more people and partner with organizations that provide treatment.
The police and fire departments would get more money for more Narcan, the drug that can reverse an overdose.
“It’s going to be a nice asset,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett to WISH, “to help us remedy some of the challenges that the opioid epidemic has provided.”
The mayor added that $3.7 million is not the final amount the city will get. The council will be standing by to help decide how any additional money may be spent. The distribution of the $3.7 million must go through the council’s legislative process, which includes passing through committee and a full council vote.
