Fiscal Note
The proposed resolution calls for a Public Health Comprehensive Needs Assessment related to the needs of individuals and communities living with Opioid Use Disorder in Dane County. This resolution also calls for a transfer of $2.4 million from the Dane County Opioid Settlement Funds to the Public Health Madison & Dane County budget to implement the results of the Needs Assessment. No City appropriation required.
Title
Calling for a Public Health Comprehensive Needs Assessment for Use of Opioid Settlement Funds
Body
WHEREAS, in the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies assured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to opioid pain relievers despite having evidence to the contrary, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates, leading to widespread misuse of both prescription and non-prescription opioids; and,
WHEREAS, since the opioid epidemic was declared a public health emergency in 2017, it has claimed more than half a million lives; and,
WHEREAS, of the 105,000 people who died from drug overdose in the United States in 2023, 80,000 of them died from an opioid overdose (76%); and,
WHEREAS, nearly 1 in 3 adults reported in a 2022 Kaiser Family Foundation survey that they or a family member have been addicted to opioids; and,
WHEREAS, in 2022, an estimated 6.1 million people ages twelve or older reported having an opioid use disorder; and,
WHEREAS, there are significant racial disparities in the impact of the opioid public health emergency: in 2024, opioid death rates were higher among American Indian/Alasa Native people (35.5 deaths per 100,000 people) and Black people (22.8 per 100,000) than the opioid death rate among white people (17.5 per 100,000); and,
WHEREAS, a 2025 Public Health Madison & Dane County report on overdose deaths in Dane County found that Black people were four times more likely to die of an overdose compared with Dane County as a whole; and,
WHEREAS, that 2025 Public Health Madiso...
Click here for full text