Delaware plans to expand substance use disorder services and treatment with the first $700,000 it generated by billing drugmakers for the opioids they sell in the state, according to The News Journal.
State officials told the newspaper that Delaware, which continues to lead the nation in prescription rate for high-dose opioids, will amass about $2 million in its Opioid Impact Fund by the end of 2020, which does not include the money the state retroactively collected when the measure passed in 2019.
The impact fee fines drugmakers 1 cent for every morphine milligram equivalent of any brand-name opioid dispensed in Delaware. For generic opioids, it's one-quarter cent. The state charges drugmakers who refuse to pay the fee a penalty up to $100 a day or 10 percent of the total impact fee due, whichever is greater.
The state will use $300,000 from the Opioid Impact Fund as startup money for stabilization centers that can house and counsel people during weekends and non-business hours, and it will put $250,000 toward the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, according to The News Journal.
Delaware will also allocate $100,000 from the fund to the state government for administrative expenses associated with collecting the fees. The remaining $50,000 will be used to buy 925 additional naloxone kits, the newspaper reported.