Ashland County receives state funding to combat opioid crisis

The Ashland County Sheriff’s Office has received $228,000 from the state to help combat the ongoing opioid crisis that continues to grip the region.

“As attorney general, my top priority is public safety. And one of the biggest threats that we face in this state to public safety is the opioid epidemic,” said Josh Kaul during a press conference Thursday in Ashland.

Ashland County’s share is part of the $750 million the state is distributing collected from pharmaceutical companies for their role in the crisis. Eleven other law enforcement agencies are also receiving funding. Seventy percent of the funds will go counties and local government, while the remainder will go towards the state Department of Health Services. The state will allocate these funds across Wisconsin through 2038.

“That’s a huge amount of money, but it’s not enough to combat this epidemic because the challenges we face are broader than that amount of money can support,” Kaul said. “But it can do a lot to help us address these challenges.”

To do so, the money will be used to fund treatment and diversion programs as well as prevention and enforcement efforts.

Previous efforts to combat the opioid pandemic haven’t worked, Ashland County Sheriff Brian Zupke said.

“Freed offenders are coming back to jail,” he said. “This funding seemed to establish some kind of program. They can come in and get these services. We can have an intervention in jail, supply them with counseling and then have an exit plan as well,” he said.

A program like this has been discussed for several years but the biggest obstacle has been resources to fund it, said Terry Barningham, director of health and human services for Ashland County.

Barningham envisions what she called a wrap-around program in which when an inmate comes to jail they’ll be assessed. If they are appropriate for this treatment and agree to it, a case manager will work with them and start the process.

“See what medications are most appropriate for them. Then we have counseling services that will go on.”

The goal of these services is to prepare inmate participants to be successful in society upon being released. When that time comes, the program includes services to help them get off on the right foot, Barningham said. These include FoodShare, Medicaid, help with housing and follow-up treatment so there is a continuity of care.

“We know it’s not going to be effective for everybody, but we’re not going to give up,” she said. “It will be offered to anyone who is interested time and time again, because we know the more people that try and succeed with recovery, the more successful they are.”