(The Center Square) – Two Lafayette legislators are seeking a statewide audit of how Louisiana is using its share of opioid settlement money, saying that nearly a year after a legislative audit flagged major gaps in oversight, lawmakers still do not have a clear picture of where the money is going or what it is accomplishing.
The resolution, authored by Rep. Annie Spell and Sen. Brach Myers, would require a report detailing how much opioid settlement funding Louisiana has received, how much has been distributed to each parish and sheriff’s office, and exactly how the money has been spent.
The proposed audit would give lawmakers a broader statewide accounting of whether that money is being spent promptly, legally and effectively – and whether Louisiana’s current oversight structure is strong enough to ensure settlement dollars are actually reducing addiction, overdoses and the long tail of costs the opioid crisis has imposed on local communities.
The push comes after a May 2025 audit found that no entity in Louisiana had been specifically tasked with enforcing the terms of the opioid settlement agreements, including payment amounts and approved uses. The audit said the Louisiana Opioid Abatement Task Force serves only in an advisory role and lacks authority under the state’s memorandum of understanding to ensure parish and sheriff spending complies with the agreement.
That report found the task force had distributed about $98.5 million to parishes and sheriffs as of October 2024, while retaining another $21.1 million for administration and the Local Government Fee Fund as of September 2024. But despite the scale of the money, auditors found relatively little had actually been spent and that reporting on expenditures was incomplete.
In a previous interview, Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Boulet questioned whether anyone has truly measured the scope of the opioid crisis or the effect of the settlement spending.
“Has it been corrected? I don’t think it has,” Boulet told The Center Square in August.
She added that she wants a clearer picture of what is happening “on the ground from an opioid perspective,” saying there is still “no quantitative understanding” of the crisis.
The emerging spending picture has raised fresh questions about whether the money is being deployed quickly enough and whether some uses fit the intent of the settlement.
In Jefferson Parish, records obtained by The Center Square show the parish received about $10.65 million in opioid settlement deposits by late 2024. Records show $2.8 million was transferred into a fund for design and construction of a new 24th Judicial District Drug Court project, while $500,000 was set aside for homeless services through the Jefferson Parish Human Services Authority.
But only a small share of that money had actually gone out the door at the time of the records: about $216,028 on the Drug Court project, mostly for architectural work, and about $125,000 for homeless services.
The Center Square was unsuccessful prior to publication getting comment from parish council members.
In Lafayette, city-parish records indicate the local government had received or formally budgeted about $4.2 million in opioid settlement funds by late February. Specific ordinances and agenda items show $434,576 approved in March 2025 for allowable opioid-abatement expenditures, $669,405 in July for the Acadiana Crime Lab from the parish side, $927,179 that same month for the crime lab from the joint city-parish side, and $1,459,365 in February for police departments, the city marshal, public outreach and work on the War Memorial Building.
In East Baton Rouge Parish, Councilmember Laurie Adams described a “holistic approach” that has included support for the district attorney’s office, 19th Judicial District Court intervention programs, behavioral health treatment and recovery providers, the coroner’s office, education and prevention efforts, the public defender’s office and juvenile court. She said the parish has also funded outreach aimed at getting drug-addicted homeless residents off the street and into treatment, including work with Set Free Indeed and the Grove on Perkins residential program.
“So it’s been a mixture of providing support for the programs that were hit hard,” Adams told The Center Square in an interview. “And then also intervention programs to try and get people into treatment and get them free from their addiction.”
Adams said East Baton Rouge expects to receive about $30 million over 18 years and estimated that roughly $3.5 million to $5 million has come in so far, with annual contracted services running around $1 million to $1.5 million. She said the scope of the crisis justifies an aggressive response.
“Thirty million over 18 years sounds like a lot of money, but the scope of the problem is pretty dramatic,” Adams said.
Another way parishes are using the funding includes investing the money using Louisiana’s state-affiliated asset management pool. Louisiana’s Opioid Abatement Task Force will allow parishes to invest their funds if they wish.
