Lawmakers have sent a bill to Gov. Tate Reeves to reform the Mississippi’s opioid settlement laws as they seek to finalize their first spending decisions for the money.
The Senate bill would change how the state distributes hundreds of millions of dollars won in national lawsuits against companies accused of contributing to the opioid epidemic, a public health crisis that’s killed hundreds of thousands of Americans over the past two decades. Every state in the country is receiving millions to billions of dollars from these or similar lawsuits.
The Legislature, which is expected to control at least $357 million from the lawsuits through 2040, passed a law last year to set up an advisory council independent of the Legislature to help oversee the funds. In that bill, lawmakers tasked this council with soliciting applications from organizations interested in addressing the opioid epidemic. The council would review and score those plans’ effectiveness and sustainability, and provide recommendations for the Legislature to approve or reject.
That council, led by Attorney General Lynn Fitch, accomplished those tasks last summer and fall. But many Mississippi recovery advocates expressed concern about how the council made its decisions. At the last council meeting of 2025, one member asked for the help of a third party with expertise in the area to help guide the committee in making responsible decisions to prevent overdoses.
This year’s bill, if it becomes law, would codify that ask. It would require the Attorney General’s Office to contract with a consultant within two months of the law’s enactment. Additionally, it would strengthen the council’s rules to prevent conflicts of interests with council members interacting with applications they may be associated with — a concern raised by recovery advocates during last year’s review process.
The bill also would give lawmakers more power over opioid settlement funding. It expands the Legislature’s role from only approving or rejecting council applications to allowing the House and the Senate to amend recommended funding amounts.
Legislators are looking to use that potential power in this application cycle, as revealed by proposed appropriation bills at different stages. They are also looking to send money the council oversees for projects members didn’t review.
The bill sent to the governor does not include a previous provision that would have required tens of millions of additional opioid settlement dollars to be spent on addressing addiction. While the Legislature controls most of Mississippi’s lawsuit money, about $63 million is expected to be sent to 147 towns, cities and counties.
Fitch authorized those local governments to spend the money however their elected leaders wish without reporting their purchases, and many have done that. Of the $15.5 million local governments received as of last summer, over four times as much money was spent for general purposes than efforts to prevent overdoses. In early March, Republican House Public Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Sam Creekmore changed the bill to require all local governments to spend opioid settlement money on public health overdose prevention efforts.
Rep. Sam Creekmore speaks during a press conference on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, at the Capitol in Jackson. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi TodayBut that language didn’t survive negotiations between a small group of senators and representatives, including Creekmore. In response to a question on the House floor Sunday night about the local government language from Rep. Bob Evans, a Democrat from Monticello, Creekmore said Fitch gave lawmakers an opinion that the local governments’ money was meant to pay back opioid-related expenses from the past two decades.
“We’re not requiring them to give any evidence whatsoever that they’ve actually spent one cent in opioid interdiction or otherwise, are we?” Evans, the only representative to vote no on the bill, asked Creekmore on the House floor.
“No sir, we’re not requiring it,” Creekmore responded.
“So if the mayor and board of aldermen wanted to give themselves big raises and whatnot, that’s fine, they can do that, right?” Evans asked later in the exchange.
“That is their right to do so,” Creekmore said.
Evans said the bill had been referred to the House’s Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency Committee.
“Would you agree with me that in this bill, there is no accountability, no efficiency, or no transparency requirements whatsoever?” Evans asked Creekmore. “They don’t even have to tell us how they spent it, period, if they don’t want to, right?”
“The locals do not have to tell us, no sir,” Creekmore responded.
In response to an emailed question about the attorney general’s legal opinion, MaryAsa Lee, a spokesperson for Fitch’s office, sent a statement that the office’s Chief of Staff Michelle Williams originally sent Mississippi Today in 2025. The statement outlines that the overdose crisis cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and the national settlements allow a minority percentage of a state’s total share to be used for non-addiction purposes.
The national agreements say lawyers on both sides of the agreement do not recommend spending available money on purposes other than addressing addiction. Most states have taken steps to guarantee that more settlement money goes to overdose prevention than the settlements require.
Rep. Jeffery Hulum III, a Democrat from Gulfport, on Sunday also expressed concern about Creekmore and the other lawmaker negotiators’ decision to remove the local government spending restrictions. When the Gulf States Newsroom hosted an event at the Capitol with audio testimonies of Mississippians impacted by the opioid epidemic, Hulum was one of two state lawmakers who stopped to listen to the recordings.
State Reps. Bubba Carpenter, R-Burnsville, and Jeffrey Hulum III, D-Gulfport, prepare to vote and review a document during a special session at the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi TodayCreekmore said he still believes local governments should use settlement money for treating and abating the opioid epidemic, and he said he may try again next year to add those provisions. But he did not try to make changes to the current bill.
“It’s ready to go,” Creekmore said to Hulum.
Although he voted to approve the bill, Hulum told Mississippi Today on Monday morning that he found Creekmore’s decision to sign off on removing the local government restrictions disturbing — a comment Creekmore declined to respond to. Hulum’s home county has one of the highest overdose rates in the state, and he knows those most impacted by the public health catastrophe have said they want this money to prevent others from dying.
“When you take that restriction off, and you allow municipalities, towns or organizations to utilize that money in any form or fashion, how is that really helping to stop, prevent or treat opioid addiction?”
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