million of Wisconsin's share of Wisconsin.
start to be dispersed for the the opioid settlement funds will
year. Wisconsin will receive a total of $750 million over
several years from settlements reached in national lawsuits
against pharmaceutical companies that made opioid drugs,
according to the CDC. Wisconsin saw a 4% decrease in overdose
deaths in 2023, down to a still staggering 1754 deaths. Fentanyl
and drugs laced with it account for most of the deaths. Here to
talk about how the settlement money is being put to work,
state Attorney General Josh Collin, thanks very much for
being here. >> So is it too early to say
whether programs funded to date with settlement funds are
helping drive down these deaths? >> Well, it's hard to know
exactly how they link up to those kinds of numbers, but what
I can say with a lot of confidence is that those dollars
are making a difference, so when we prepared to get funds
allocated for the upcoming fiscal year, the Department of
Health Services secretary designee and I met with
stakeholders from around the state. We held roundtable
events, and we asked people on the front lines of the fight
against the opioid epidemic to tell us what's been working and
where do we need more resources. One of the things we
consistently heard from folks is that these funds are making a
difference. They're filling gaps where they're needed, and I'll
give you an example, Medicaid reimburses certain aspects of
treatment for people who are struggling with substance use
disorder, but there are parts that aren't covered that can be
critical, like housing. So getting those kinds of funds can
help keep people in treatment and can help make them more
successful. Now let's be clear there are never going to be
enough funds to address all the needs that we have. But the more
dollars we can get to communities, the more that we
can help keep people safe and save lives.
>> Because how hard is it to release and reverse the grip of
the opioid epidemic on this population?
>> It's been an enormous challenge for communities across
the country. There has been some meaningful progress made, and
it's important to note that things like the Pdmp and efforts
to discourage overprescription of opioids, those have made a
difference. And I think you're seeing a reversal in the trend
of opioid prescriptions, which had gone up dramatically over a
few decades. On the other hand, we're dealing with the impacts
of the pandemic and social isolation and more concerning,
we're dealing with the impacts of fentanyl, which is now laced
in all sorts of drugs and is incredibly dangerous.
>> Just the flow of fentanyl just keep coming. And can law
enforcement keep up? >> Well, right now the volume
coming in is enormous and it's mixed in all sorts of different
types of drugs. So we've got to be doing a variety of things to
keep people safe. One is we've got to make sure we are
investigating and prosecuting shipping these incredibly
communities. That's one of the things we do at DOJ. But we've
also got to recognize that people are overdosing sometimes
not even realizing that they're using opioids. And so having
harm reduction measures in place like fentanyl test strips and
like Narcan, which are going to be funded through some of these
opioid settlement funds, is also helping to save lives.
>> How angry does the role of opioid manufacturers in this
scourge make you? >> It makes me really upset. You
know, this problem would not have happened if it wasn't for
the pumping up of opioid prescriptions through efforts of
pharmaceutics companies. When we filed our suit against Purdue
Pharma, just months after I took office as AG, we laid out in our
complaint our allegations about how this whole thing started.
You know, if you go back decades. Opioid prescriptions
were incredibly low in Wisconsin, in Wisconsin and
nationwide. But through efforts of companies like Purdue Pharma
to really push opioids, to promote studies that were not
actually valid, to encourage doctors to prescribe opioids,
there's been a major addiction epidemic that's happened. And
the impacts that we're seeing are still to this day in
significant part, being driven by that in Wisconsin.
>> Do any of the settlement monies go to individuals impact
impacted the way the settlements were structured is that they are
focused on abating future harm. >> So there have been some
separate legal actions involving the individuals who were
impacted. But these funds, based on the terms of the settlement,
are meant to be forward looking in terms of preventing harm. So
certainly if there are people who are struggling with
substance use disorder who were impacted previously, this might
help them get the kind of support that they need. But it's
separate from providing the kind of compensation for somebody who
is injured on another score. >> As you well know, Arizona
this week arraigned false Republican electors alleged to
be part of a falsely electoral, you know, falsifying electoral
documents. What about Wisconsin's false electors who
settled a civil suit? Will you be criminally charging them?
>> Well, I can say a few things. So first, I think it is vitally
important that anybody who committed a crime with the goal
of overturning the results of an election be held accountable,
and there have been significant steps towards accountability
through the federal prosecution of former President Trump.
That's ongoing right now. A number of states have now
brought charges at the Department of Justice. We don't
confirm or deny the existence of ongoing investigations and
charging decisions that that Das ultimately make are only
announced when they're happening . But again, it's critical that
anybody who committed a crime to overturn an election is held
accountable. heading into the November
elections about a repeat of the aftermath of the 2020 election?
>> I think it's something we need to be vigilant about in
2020. We knew that there were a number of threats to the
security of our elections, and so we made sure to make clear to
people that if there was voter intimidation at the polls or
voter fraud, that people needed to expect to be held
accountable. And fortunately, in 2020, election Day went
smoothly, I think a lot more smoothly than people anticipated
. And of course, we then saw significant litigation in the
aftermath of that election. I expect that we will see
litigation again in the aftermath of this election in
2020. We defended the state's voters and their choice for
president, and we won every single case. But one of those
cases was 4 to 3 in our state Supreme Court. Now, this year,
I, you know, the composition of the Supreme Court has changed a
bit, and we're going to be prepared to defend the results
and ensure that the will of the voters is upheld. We succeeded
in 2020, and I'm confident we will again in 2024. But we're
also not going in with with any any misunderstanding that that
we're not going to potentially we're not going to potentially