About 20,000 opioid overdose prevention kits will be distributed across South Dakota thanks to a partnership between the state and Sioux Falls-based nonprofit Emily’s Hope. The kits are filled with naloxone, an antidote for opioid overdoses, along with other resources and information.
Emily’s Hope founder and CEO Angela Kennecke, whose daughter died from a fentanyl overdose in 2018, announced the partnership in Sioux Falls on Friday alongside South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, state Health Department Secretary Melissa Magstadt and state Social Services Department Secretary Matt Althoff.
The distribution is funded with $350,000 of South Dakota’s $78.6 million “and counting” in national opioid settlement funds, Jackley said. The national opioid settlements were reached to resolve opioid litigation against pharmaceutical distributors and manufacturers accused of flooding communities with opioid painkillers even though they allegedly knew how addictive and deadly the drugs were.
South Dakota will receive about $50 million over the next 15 years from the first settlement and will receive another $28.6 million over the next 17 years from a settlement with Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Teva and Allergan.