Conflicts of Interest and Opioid Settlement Money

Yesterday, we hosted the fourth in our series of fireside chats aimed at helping journalists cover the billions of dollars into opioid settlement monies coming in our communities right now.

Regina LaBelle shared with us how to understand potential conflicts of interest present on the task forces responsible for spending or recommending spending of opioid settlement money. LaBelle, JD, is a Distinguished Scholar and Director of the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown University Law Center.

We’re also including a list below of all of the links discussed in the session and a few more that will help you cover this topic and other addiction-related topics.

If you’re not a journalist, please consider sharing these resources with the journalists at your local newspaper, TV or radio station, or at your favorite digital outlet. Journalists will help us hold public officials accountable for the spending of these funds, and you can help them cover this essential topic.

We have plans already in the works for more of these fireside chats in the coming months so keep an eye out in your inbox, but in the meantime, thank you for the vital work you’re doing in your newsroom or on the ground in your community.

Access all of Reporting on Addiction’s resources to help you cover the opioid lawsuit money, including the link to join our Slack community and newsletters: https://www.reportingonaddiction.org/ostrh

Publication - "Conflicts of Interest and Opioid Litigation Proceeds: Ensuring Fairness and Transparency" from the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown University Law Center: https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/publications/conflicts-of-interest-and-opioid-litigation-proceeds-ensuring-fairness-and-transparency/ 

For more national resources and data on opioids and overdose deaths, visit the CDC’s Understanding the Opioid Overdose Epidemic: https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html