Notre Dame summit will discuss distribution of $50 billion in opioid settlements

The Main Building on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in July of 2017 / Credit: NOVA SAFO/AFP/Getty Images

CNA Newsroom, Jul 29, 2024 / 06:30 am (CNA).

The University of Notre Dame will hold an August summit to gather elected officials, academic researchers, and other nonprofit leaders to plan effective use of the sum total of $50 billion in settlements to victims of the opioid crisis. 

Led by Notre Dame’s Poverty Initiative, “A Pathway to Hope: Summit on the National Opioids Settlement” is being convened to examine a series of high-dollar payouts from lawsuits brought against drug manufacturers and distributors following rises in fatalities linked to opioid usage. 

Scheduled for Aug. 5-6, the summit will bring together elected officials, academic researchers, attorneys general, and other nonprofit leaders to develop strategies for the distribution of those funds.

“Across the United States, the opioid epidemic has devastated communities as opioid-related deaths have skyrocketed,” read the Notre Dame July 19 press release. 

“According to data from the National Vital Statistics System and the CDC Wonder Database, the opioid death rate rose by 2,473 percent between 1979 and 2022.”

Presentations at the event will frame the crisis, explain its impact on communities and families, and share potential solutions. 

Father Edward Malloy, former president of the University of Notre Dame (1987-2005), a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and a member of the board of directors for the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, will be a guest speaker at the event. 

Huntington, West Virginia Mayor Stephen Williams, a co-chair in the U.S. Conference of Mayors Task Force on Substance Abuse, Prevention, and Recovery Services, is also set to speak at the event.

The Summit will also feature a workshop led by Notre Dame economics experts from the Department of Economics and the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities. 

The goal will be to develop “a co-created research agenda led by Notre Dame faculty to work with people on the frontlines to ensure the approaches are accurate, scalable and effective,” according to the release.

“A primary goal of the Poverty Initiative, which launched last fall, is to bring faculty together with policymakers, philanthropists and providers to discover new pathways to break the cycle of poverty,” said economics professor Jim Sullivan, who heads the Poverty Initiative, which is designed to study anti-poverty efforts and develop pathways out of poverty for people around the world.

“The Pathway to Hope Summit embodies that mission as the University will convene some of the nation’s leading experts to find solutions to the opioid crisis that has afflicted families all across this country,” he added.