NJ diverted $45 million in opioid funds. Advocates say the reason still doesn’t add up.

On June 30, 2025, harm reduction advocates laid their bodies across the statehouse floors, holding fake bloodied signs. They were protesting the state’s decision to divert $45 million in opioid settlement funding to four hospital networks.

At the state’s request, harm reductionists and community organizers had spent 18 months building a strategic plan on how to spend New Jersey’s share of the $1.1 billion it would receive through 2038 from a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers.

Advocates say it took New Jersey just two weeks to ignore the plan.

The state offered only one justification: hospitals facing Medicaid cuts from the Trump administration needed money to keep managing opioid crises in their emergency rooms. But state law requires settlement funds to supplement existing government spending–not replace it. An examination of the hospitals’ own proposals shows how they plan to use the money to expand harm reduction initiatives and where questions remain.

“These are precious dollars at the expense of our loved ones and neighbors who have lost their lives to the preventable overdose crisis,” said Jenna Mellor, who sits on the state’s Opioid Settlement Advisory Council and leads the New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition.

Who got the money

The budget resolution which allowed this appropriation to happen is not tied to any legislative sponsor, so it is unclear who exactly was behind the decision. 

Advocates were quick to note that the two hospital networks receiving the largest share of the $45 million at $15 million each would be Cooper University Health–tied to South Jersey political powerbroker George Norcross–and RWJ Barnabas Health, where former Gov. Phil Murphy’s ex-chief of staff (and the state’s former senator) George Helmy now works. The other two hospitals, Hackensack Meridian Health and Atlantic Health, would receive $10 million and $5 million, respectively.

State leaders Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, Senate President Nicholas Scutari, and Senate Budget Chairman Paul Sarlo did not respond to requests for comment about the diversion. Last year, Sarlo told New Jersey Monitor that Murphy signed off on the allocation.

In a statement issued after the budget was passed, Gov. Phil Murphy said he was “proud” of the advisory council’s work.

“I have heard from experts and legislators over the past few days, and I share their concerns about how the budget language will impact the Council’s efforts,” Murphy said. “However, I also know that federal actions are creating a perilous situation for our state’s hospitals and they can use these funds to deliver effective services.”

Inside the proposals

From the Department of Human Services, New Jersey Urban News requested the hospital networks’ proposals on how they will use the funding and found that all four detailed expanding treatment for opioid and substance use. All plan to buy supplies, like naloxone, or onboard treatment specialists to help people who use substances.

Cooper University Health Care’s proposals, for instance, earmark $8.5 million for a Camden drop-in center providing treatment and “wrap around services” for people with substance use disorder and $100,000 for animal research studies related to “integrated complex pain treatment.” Hackensack Meridian allocated $530,000 to Cover Now, a California nonprofit supporting law enforcement mental health. 

Other expenditures include $6 million for new detox beds at Hackensack Meridian Health and $1.5 million for supportive housing by Cooper University Health Care. Cooper’s proposals also include $235,175 in subgrants to community-based organizations in Camden and Cape May Counties, less than two percent of its total $15 million allocation.

How the hospitals plan to sustain these programs beyond the grant period is mixed. Cooper, for example, says it has “multiple revenue streams” for its drop-in center but also plans to apply for county, state, and federal funding and “leverage” medical billing. Atlantic Health says most of its programs will be absorbed into standard clinical operations, with naloxone distribution maintained through community partnerships, while pursuing “state, federal, and private sources.”

Hackensack Meridian Health did not explain how it works with Cover Now when requested by New Jersey Urban News. The New Jersey Hospital Association, responding on behalf of Hackensack Meridian, offered a statement from its president and CEO calling hospitals “essential community anchors” in combating opioid misuse.

In addition, it’s not clear if the state has approved these proposals–the state Department of Human Services did not respond to requests for confirmation. Cooper University Health Network said in a statement that it has not yet received the opioid settlement funding. 

“Cooper University Health Care’s Center for Healing was founded in 2015 and has become a national leader in evidence-based addiction treatment and use of Medications for Addiction Treatment (MAT). The Center’s innovative approach goes far beyond emergency intervention medical care to include parenting support, medication gap coverage, recovery-focused housing, legal services, transportation, and provision of essential baby supplies,” said Wendy A. Marano, public relations manager for Cooper University Health Care.

“We had 11 overdoses and four people died in Ocean County just from Friday, Sunday, Monday,”

– Elizabeth Burke Beaty of Sea Change Recovery Community Organization

‘Every dollar counts’

But it’s not just the lack of transparency over how the decision was made that upsets advocates: it’s why and how the settlement dollars are spent. A January report by Popular Democracy in Action–signed by harm reduction organizations nationwide–found that, in some cases, opioid settlement funding was spent on police salaries, like in Glassboro, or on an “Ice Cream with a Cop” event in Lodi.

“We had 11 overdoses and four people died in Ocean County, just from Friday, Sunday, Monday,” said Elizabeth Burke Beaty, who leads Sea Change Recovery Community Organization, when speaking to New Jersey Urban News in January.

“So to take it away from the people that are boots on the ground across New Jersey, that are working so hard. I mean, 21 Harm Reduction Centers in all 21 counties, that’s a major feat for us, and we’re all struggling just to get by,” she added.

Harm reduction meets people where they are, without forcing any one treatment pathway. Some days, that could mean help finding a meal. Other days, that could mean assistance getting to a critical doctor’s appointment. Or it could mean access to sterile syringes, xylazine testing strips, and more. 

“On the ground level, it definitely has to be a bottoms-up approach, but it can’t be one where you’re simply taking state actors and implanting them into communities,” said Racquel Romans-Henry, director of policy at Salvation and Social Justice. “It has to be an effort that’s led by people who have been directly impacted, because they’re the ones closest to the solutions.”

That history matters, Romans-Henry said.

“You’re talking about a 50-year assault on Black, brown and poor communities, incarcerating people, destroying families. Robbing communities of generational wealth,” she said, referencing the War on Drugs. “So when you’re looking at the state’s role in really harming these communities, then you understand why it’s so important to really make sure that that state approach is one that enriches and empowers communities.”

The approach appears to be working. Since New Jersey began investing in harm reduction services, drug-related overdose deaths have declined by 50 percent, according to Mellor. But that progress has not been equal: overdose rates remain at “historic highs” for Black and Indigenous communities nationwide. This makes community-led programs, which advocates say are better trusted by those communities, all the more critical.

Hospitals are often at the frontlines when drug use reaches a crisis point, whether it’s because of wound care or overdose. But Mellor said those who use substances are often fearful of going to hospitals because of the discrimination they face there. She described what happened to someone her harm reduction navigator worked with who had a severe infection.

When he arrived at the hospital, its policy required that anyone suspected of using drugs had to wait for a security guard to be searched before getting services.

“That’s not only discriminatory, it also really helps understand why people are so hesitant to go seek care from emergency services even when they’re experiencing a medical emergency,” Mellor said.

The fight to restore the funds

Murphy invested significantly in harm reduction while in office, growing the state’s authorized harm reduction centers from seven in 2022 to 54 by mid-2025. He also expanded access to naloxone statewide and signed legislation protecting harm reduction centers from criminal penalties for distributing life-saving supplies. In his last months in office, he allocated more than $130 million in opioid settlement funds to harm reduction programs — but advocates note that $45 million is still missing from the overall pot.

State lawmakers are looking to replace those funds. State Sens. Joe Vitale and Troy Singleton have been pushing for a bill that would restore the $45 million to the opioid settlement fund by drawing from the state’s general fund instead. Singleton sponsored the 2023 law that created the Opioid Recovery and Remediation Fund.

“We believe that our obligation is to ensure that the settlement dollars are meant to address the opioid epidemic–they’re spent on proven, evidence-based interventions,” Singleton told New Jersey Urban News. “That is what the foundational law, which I was the sponsor of, mandated…in concert with our advisory council. That did not happen through [the 2026 fiscal year] budget process.”

As budget negotiations for the next fiscal year began this March, Gov. Mikie Sherrill told New Jersey Monitor she would continue investing harm reduction strategies. A statement from spokesperson Maggie Gabbarino said the proposed FY2027 budget “continues to implement the recommendations of the Opioid Recovery and Remediation Advisory Council so that we can uplift evidence-based harm reduction strategies.” However, Gabbarino did not address the question when asked directly whether Sherrill supported restoring the $45 million.

For advocates, that answer can’t come soon enough.

And for Singleton, this fight started long before he was in the legislature. His own uncle died in a drug house in Philadelphia, which he says “tore his family apart.” He remembers how his grandmother would lock certain rooms in their house to protect it against his uncle–and how he knew at the age of 17 that something could be done to help this crisis.

“When someone is actively struggling against that fight and just trying like hell to get out of their own personal addiction,” said Singleton, “you come to realize pretty quickly that we need to do anything and everything we can to invest in proven techniques that help people escape the throes of their addiction and lead productive lives.”

This story was thanks to a microgrant from Reporting on Addiction.

Recovery from addiction is possible. For help, please call the free and confidential treatment referral hotline (1-800-662-HELP) or visit findtreatment.gov