News Photo by Julie Riddle At Alpena’s Sunrise Centre on Thursday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, seated center, speaks with a group of Alpena leaders about possible improvements to Alpena’s drug addiction-fighting efforts.

ALPENA — Alpena fights hard against drug addiction, people in recovery told a visiting state official — but a coming influx of big-pharma dollars could make that response even stronger.

“They care here,” a woman told Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel as she toured Alpena’s Sunrise Centre on Thursday during a visit to Alpena.

About a dozen women in a group counseling session at the center — one of few facilities in northern Michigan offering residential and outpatient drug and alcohol addiction treatment — said the facility offers compassionate, effective care, far exceeding that found at recovery centers elsewhere.

Still, they said, the community needs more resources to keep people from getting pulled back into addiction.

The fixes the women recommended, like transitional housing for people leaving residential treatment, don’t come cheaply.

But the 2021 settlement of lawsuits against several giant opioid pharmaceutical companies means $2 million will reach Northeast Michigan as soon as July, earmarked for efforts that will fight opioid addiction.

During her Sunrise Centre visit, Nessel talked with a handful of local leaders about ways the coming settlement money could help Alpena decrease drug crime and overdose deaths by fighting drug addiction.

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“First and foremost, we don’t want people to die,” Nessel told the women in recovery. “We can’t help you if you’re not alive.”

Alpena County stands to receive $1.1 million from the opioid settlement, with $500,000 anticipated to go to Presque Isle County and about $300,000 each to Montmorency and Alcona counties, according to figures released by the Attorney General’s Office in January.

Officials have to use that money to try to stop drug-related problems, like the at least 118 non-fatal overdoses treated by Northeast Michigan emergency department staff in 2021, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Money from similar legal fights against tobacco companies in the 1990s, when few regulations governed the use of settlement funds, sometimes went to repair roads or bolster school budgets.

“They were like, ‘Thanks for the free money,'” Nessel told court and police officials, Alpena County commissioners, and others gathered in a Sunrise Centre conference room on Thursday.

The opioid settlement money must fight addiction, but, Nessel said, that could mean anything from construction of transitional housing to high-tech gadgets like bracelets fitted with overdose-detecting sensors, ear pieces that can abate withdrawal symptoms, and secured boxes that safely dispense the medications — themselves addictive and somewhat controversial — sometimes used to treat opioid use disorders.

Local officials have talked about using the money to fund a second-tier drug court that would allow judges to make the specialty court available to more people, Chief Judge Ed Black told Nessel.

Long distances between places, limited medical and mental health providers, and inconsistent broadband access often keep rural residents from getting the medication, counseling, or other help they need to stay sober, Sunrise Centre Medical Director Maureen Mead told the AG.

Other barriers, like criminal records and revoked driver’s licenses, stand in the way of employment and may lead to a relapse for someone in recovery, the group acknowledged.

Opioid settlement money could be used to fight those problems, as could the power of the AG’s office, Nessel said, offering to speak with the group again to address challenges specific to Alpena.

She intends to provide the services of attorneys engaged through her office to host an expungement fair in Alpena, at which eligible residents can get immediate and free help clearing their criminal record, Nessel said.

The ongoing nationwide worker shortage means Sunrise Centre can’t find enough nurses to provide full recovery-specific medical care, Mead told the group.

Similarly, the new Alpena County Jail has the technology and facilities to provide programs and educational opportunities — services the women meeting at the center said would help them avoid relapse upon release. The jail lacks the staffing to make such programs possible, however, Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith told the attorney general.

Nessel did not say whether the county could use settlement funds to help entice employees to the county but did pledge to continue the conversation and help where possible.

Other pending lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies could mean more settlement money for communities in the future, and the county can apply for state grants to support potential addiction-fighting programs, Nessel told the group.

After the meeting, while touring the center, Nessel asked men in a group counseling session what they needed to succeed in their recovery.

Transitional housing and more time at Sunrise Centre, where they were getting help getting better, the men said.

The anticipated $1.1 million opioid settlement may allow the county to provide them even more than that.

Meanwhile, Nessel told the women meeting at the center, recovery can be a rocky road.

“Keep plugging along,” she told them. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jriddleX.

Lawsuit settlement money headed to Northeast Michigan

How much Northeast Michigan counties can expect to receive from a recent $26 billion lawsuit settlement involving Johnson and Johnson and three pharmaceutical distribution companies in payments beginning as early as July:

Alpena County: $1,098,999

Presque Isle County: $504,199

Montmorency County: $304,976

Alcona County: $289,131

Source: The Michigan Attorney General’s Office