Duxbury Opioid Abatement Funds Working Group

The Opioid Working group has concluded its duties and has forwarded its recommendations to the Town Manager. We would like to thank the public for all of their input on this important project.  

On July 21, 2021, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced a $26 billion resolution with opioid distributors and Johnson & Johnson, which will provide more than $500 million to the Commonwealth and its cities and towns for prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery across Massachusetts. Click here to go to the Attorney Generals website for more information. 

Total abatement funds allocated to the Town of Duxbury: $786,787 to be incrementally appropriated starting in 2022 through 2038. See spreadsheet at the bottom of the page for details.

Charge of Working Group

The charge of the working group would be to report to Town Management for the purpose of appropriating settlement funds to achieve their purpose.

This would include the following:
i. How best to expend these monies within the guidelines from the Commonwealth.
ii. Leverage existing programs or pool money with regional programs to get the most of these funds.
iii. Put together a long-term spending plan based on the length of time these funds would be received.
iv. Draft Articles for Town Meeting on the appropriation of funds for this purpose.
v. Oversee the spending of these funds to make sure they are made in accordance with guidelines from the Commonwealth.
vi. Prepare required reports as put forth by the Commonwealth and oversee the proper retention of documents.

Working Group Members
Anne Marie-Winchester, Chair
Community Coordinator, PCO Hope
Anne Ward LCSW, Co-Chair
Board Member, Duxbury FACTS
Sue Bradford
Executive Director, Duxbury Student Union
Kathy Carney, RN
Town Nurse, Duxbury Health Department
Lisa Freeley
Director of Business and Finance, Duxbury Public Schools
Kirsten Piper, Firefighter/Paramedic
EMS Manager, Duxbury Fire Department
Andrew Homestead, Sergeant
Crisis Intervention Team, Duxbury Police Department

Working group created and monitored by: John Q. Adams, Duxbury Finance Director