How are states spending their opioid settlement cash? Look yours up in this database

How are states spending their opioid settlement cash? Look yours up in this database toggle caption Celia Talbot Tobin for KFF Health News In the past few years, state and local governments across the U.S. have begun spending billions in opioid settlements paid by companies accused of fueling the overdose crisis. Across the country, the money supports other innovative treatment approaches: $21 million for a new program in Kentucky that diverts people with mental illness or addiction who face low-level charges away from incarceration and into treatment, education, and workforce training More than $3 million for, in part, three new mobile methadone programs in Massachusetts, to bring the medication to rural and underserved areas Tens of thousands of dollars each in Iowa and Pennsylvania to cover out-of-pocket treatment costs for people without insurance or those with high deductibles Philip Rutherford, an expert on substance use disorder at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, said these efforts "are really positive" and many have been "historically difficult or impossible to achieve with federal or state funding." toggle caption Ash Ponders for KFF Health News Heart disease screening, robot ambulances, and more Some opioid settlement expenditures have sparked fierce disagreement. KFF Health News' Henry Larweh and Megan Kalata, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Sara Whaley and Vivian Flanagan, and Shatterproof's Kristen Pendergrass and Sahvanah Prescott contributed to this article.