At least 25 municipalities in New Jersey have come under scrutiny for allegedly steering millions in opioid settlement funds toward questionable expenses — including an electric Mustang, personalized jackets and high-profile concerts — rather than the addiction treatment, prevention and recovery programs the money was intended to bolster.
New Jersey, where opioid-related deaths have claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and addiction has affected about 150,000 people over the past decade, was part of a landmark 2021 national settlement with major pharmaceutical players, including Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, CVS and 10 other painkiller manufacturers, NJ.com reported. At the time, the deal was widely viewed by experts, grieving families and underfunded nonprofits as both long-overdue accountability and a chance to help communities climb out of the opioid crisis.
But an NJ.com investigation found that the $1.1 billion settlement — scheduled to be paid out through 2040, with roughly half flowing directly to local governments and counties since 2022 — has often been diverted to expensive municipal wish-list items instead of expanded drug treatment, addiction services and prevention efforts. The findings were based on accounts from experts, advocates and some state officials.
“This is blood money,” former New Jersey Assemblyman John Armato told the outlet. Armato’s son, Derek, died from an overdose in 2020.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are dying because of this,” Armato, 78, said angrily in his comments to the publication.
Some of the spending highlighted in the investigation included a $73,000 custom vinyl-wrapped 2022 Mustang Mach-E purchased for the Atlantic City Police Department, $600,000 spent on two opioid awareness concerts in Irvington, and nearly $150,000 awarded to a Camden nonprofit to locate broken streetlights.
Atlantic City, which has received more than $2.3 million from the opioid settlement, reportedly spent portions of the money on 30 monogrammed jackets, along with about $140,000 for clothing, backpacks, consulting work and a city-run homeless workforce initiative.
Irvington’s use of the funds also drew sharp criticism, with the state comptroller’s office saying in a July 2025 report that the township “wasted” more than $600,000 on opioid awareness concerts held in 2023 and 2024.
“None of the billboards, promotional materials, or T-shirts that Irvington provided to the Office of the State Comptroller included information about obtaining treatment or avoiding abuse of opioids,” the report said.
New Jersey municipalities have spent about $2.3 million of the total opioid payout by exploiting vague settlement language and ambiguous guidelines — which violates the 2021 national agreement, a 2022 state attorney general’s memorandum and the 2023 state Opioid Law, according to NJ.com.
Camden forked over $148,000 to a non-profit to identify and document broken streetlight, which city spokesperson claimed was aimed to “impede the drug trade and prevent open drug use.”
Manchester Township spent $57,000 on a new car for a school resource officer to “combat drug addiction and overdose related issues (in the) school system,” and Lindenwold, which received $166,000 in the settlement, planned to build a trailer where kids could play video games.
“I’m trying to think of words that I would be willing to say in a newspaper, and I can’t think of ones that are safe to use,” Sandy Gibson, addiction researcher and counselor at The College of New Jersey said of the outlandish expenditures.
“But that’s sort of everything that’s wrong with there being no oversight with this.”
While some municipalities have spent the money frivolously, others have come under fire for sitting on it — with more than $53 million collecting dust in municipal accounts for as long as three years, NJ.com reported.
As of June 2025, Summit had nearly $1 million in the bank — but hadn’t spent a cent.
Summit Mayor Elizabeth Fagan said the city hadn’t doled out any of the funding in the 2025 reporting period because it was doing “due diligence on appropriate management of these funds so that our process is compliant with all laws and standards.”
A strategic plan was formed this year and officials are working with local nonprofits to determine how the money is spent, Fagan told the outlet.
“They’re not doing what’s intended. It’s just sitting there unspent,” Gibson urged.
“You’re telling us what your priorities are. Your inaction tells us that is not a priority to you.”
Similarly, Aberdeen Township also reported spending nothing, despite receiving just shy of $130,000 in settlement funds since 2022.
Gibson slammed that while she’s “upset that these things are happening,” she’s “even more upset that there’s no accountability.”
“Is there no accountability built into this process?” she questioned.
Meanwhile, state Assemblyman Cody Miller (D-Gloucester) said he plans to draft legislation to regulate use of the opioid money, calling for tighter oversight and transparency.
“When (Armato) initially told me what these funds were being spent on, I was pissed off,” Miller said.
“There’s so much ambiguity with the settlement information … that it’s open to interpretation.”
Miller, whose older brother and sister have struggled with addiction, said municipalities and the state “can learn from it” and that he hopes “it can help us make sure that we’re doing things more appropriately and that funds are being spent for their intended purpose.”
