(Radio Iowa) – After a three years of negotiations, the legislature has approved a plan to distribute nearly 57 MILLION dollars for opioid addiction treatment and prevention programs. Companies that produced, marketed and sold the powerful painkillers are paying billions to states and local governments over two decades to settle a national lawsuit. Iowa’s attorney general and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services will decide where the money goes — something Senators favored, but those officials must get recommendations from leaders in the state’s seven behavioral health regions. That’s something House members sought.

Representative Gary Mohr, a Republican from Bettendorf, says it’s a good solution. “I look forward to helping spend dollars to help Iowans either stay away from opioid addiction or help get them off opioid addiction,” Mohr said. Representative Timi Brown-Powers, a Democrat from Waterloo, says she’s concerned there’s already a list of programs in the bill that will be getting grants and she says there’s little transparency about how the rest of the money will be distributed.

“It is time, however, to help Iowans,” Brown-Powers said. “It’s time to stop dragging our feet.” Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner of Iowa City has a daughter with an addiction disorder. Weiner says over 11-hundred Iowans died of an opioid overdose during the three years it took to get to this point. “For too long the majority party has failed Iowans on this issue,” Weiner said, her voice shaking with emotion. “…Our fatality rate has slowed, yes, but not nearly as much as it has in surrounding states that have put settlement funds to good use.”

Iowa Capitol Rotunda (RI file photo)

Senator Tim Kraayenbrink, a Republican from Fort Dodge, says the bill has been reviewed by more people than any other bill the legislature passed this year. “Just because it’s done on the 11th hour, I don’t know if you’d want the first car off the assembly line or you want the one that’s been on there the longest, that probably has been tested a little bit more.”

The bill passed the Senate unanimously at about 10:30 last (Wednesday) night. It cleared the House half an hour earlier on an 84-to-one vote. A little over half of the 57 million will be used for infrastructure at agencies that serve clients with an opioid addiction and the rest will be used to support counseling and other programming.