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Where Camden County's $32M Opioid Settlement Is Going

Naloxone in every school and library, a treatment van on Camden's streets, and overdose deaths trending down. A look at the settlement money at work.

New Jersey is set to receive about $641 million from national opioid settlements with manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and major distributors — and Camden County's share is roughly $32 million, paid out over 18 years.

The county has been putting that money to visible use. Officials moved to place naloxone kits in every school, daycare, library, and place of worship, framing the overdose-reversal drug as something that belongs anywhere a defibrillator or fire extinguisher would. Settlement dollars also funded a Cooper Health mobile treatment van — a “clinic on wheels” — that brings buprenorphine and care directly into Camden neighborhoods.

The numbers have started to move: Camden County recorded a sharp drop in overdose deaths from 2023 to 2024, part of a broader statewide and national decline. The open question, as in every county, is whether the funding keeps reaching people at the moment they actually ask for help.

Sources

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