New Jersey Township Told the State It Spent Opioid Funds on Drug Education. The Records Point to Police SUVs and Cameras.

Washington Township, in Gloucester County, New Jersey, told the state that it spent $170,446.70 in opioid settlement funds on drug education over two fiscal years. According to an investigation published Friday by NJ.com, that money went instead to two 2024 Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs and 15 Flock surveillance cameras for the township police department — part of nearly $268,000 in vehicle and camera purchases the township made between November 2024 and April 2026.

The township is not a bystander in New Jersey's overdose crisis. It is the most populous municipality in Gloucester County, and in 2025 it recorded the highest number of treatment admissions for heroin use in the county, according to state data cited in the investigation. At the peak of the epidemic, NJ.com reported, Washington Township ranked among the worst 30% of New Jersey municipalities for heroin-related treatment admissions per capita.

What the township's own filings say

The reports in question are not internal documents. New Jersey requires every county and every eligible municipality to file an annual opioid abatement report with the state Department of Human Services, and the state publishes them. Reading Washington Township's filings is straightforward.

In its fiscal-year 2024 report (state ID NJ244, 523 Egg Harbor Road, Sewell), the township reported receiving $284,521.25 in settlement funds and expending $134,321.38 on a single program titled "Drug Education." The agency listed as the funding recipient is the Washington Township Police Department. The program description is "School-based narcotics and education program," aimed at children through eighth grade, with an anticipated 500 participants. The procurement explanation states that "based on law enforcement needs, an existing program was enhanced to focus on the opioid crisis and educational needs for the youth."

In its fiscal-year 2025 report, the township reported receiving $83,438.67 plus $1,668.77 in interest and expending another $36,125.32 on the same continuing "Drug Education" program, with key performance indicators listed as "reduction in opioid-related incidents" and "increased community awareness."

Add the two years together: $134,321.38 + $36,125.32 = $170,446.70 — the exact figure NJ.com reported that the township told the state it spent on drug education. NJ.com's reporting drew on public records requests and on the township's bill lists, meeting agendas, meeting minutes, audit reports and social media, and was summarized Friday by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Then the 2026 filings arrived

Under New Jersey's reporting calendar, subdivisions file by September 1 and the state publishes the set by October 1. In the 2026 Gloucester County report, published October 1, Washington Township's entry consists of its name, its state ID, its address and one line: "No Report Received."

It is the only subdivision in the 80-page county report marked that way.

The earlier filings also show how the decisions were made. For fiscal 2025, the township answered "No" to whether it engaged the public before deciding how to use the funds, "No" to whether it had a strategic plan, "No" to a demographic or geographic risk assessment, and "No" to whether it funded any new programs that year. It reported $0 in unspent or uncommitted funds on hand at year-end. The prior year's filing described the spending decision this way: "By working with local municipal law enforcement in order to help supplement their opioid prevention and support programs. Washington Township Municipal collaborated with the Chief of Police to determine the most effective method to administer programs."

What New Jersey's rules actually require

New Jersey and its local governments will be paid more than $1.1 billion through 2038 under settlements with opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers, according to the Office of the State Comptroller. Half goes to the state; half goes directly to 262 local government entities — all 21 counties and municipalities with populations above 10,000.

The state comptroller's guidance, which functions as the plain-language rulebook, is explicit about how that money may be used. The settlements require spending on "Opioid Remediation" — care, treatment and other programs designed to address opioid misuse, treat or mitigate opioid use disorders, or mitigate the epidemic's other effects. Taken together with the Attorney General's memorandum of agreement with local governments and state law (S783, codified at N.J.S.A. 26:2G-39 to -43), the binding rules require that an overwhelming majority of the funds address opioid use disorder and co-occurring conditions through evidence-based or evidence-informed practices: treatment, connections to care, harm reduction, prevention of over-prescribing and misuse, support for people in recovery and their families, services for criminal justice-involved people with opioid use disorders, and first-responder wellness and support services.

Two guardrails matter most for a case like this one. First, no more than 5% of the funds may go to other purposes, such as attorneys' fees, litigation costs or settlement administration — and those uses carry their own documentation and public reporting requirements. Second, the money must supplement, not supplant. It cannot cover the cost of programs a town was already paying for; it has to create something new.

The comptroller's guidance leaves no ambiguity about where to take a concern: the office accepts tips about suspected waste or abuse of settlement funds through its online form, by email at comptrollertips@osc.nj.gov, or at 1-855-OSC-TIPS (672-8477). The comptroller's page states that the Department of Human Services, in consultation with the comptroller and the attorney general, is responsible for ensuring that local governments spend the money within the approved uses.

One honest caveat: the approved-use lists do include categories that touch policing — the needs of criminal justice-involved people with opioid use disorders, and wellness and support services for first responders. The dispute is not whether law enforcement can ever receive settlement dollars. It is whether patrol vehicles and license-plate-reading cameras constitute opioid remediation, and critics of that spending argue those purchases fail the basic test the rules set out.

The same story keeps surfacing in other states

Washington Township is the third local spending story this blog has covered in the last two months, and the pattern is consistent. In August, a KFF Health News investigation found that Louisiana sheriffs — the only sheriffs in the country with a dedicated 20% cut of settlement payouts — had spent $8.1 million, with a state review panel deeming 66% of it inappropriate, including roughly $465,000 on Flock cameras and other surveillance technology (our coverage). In October, a Flatwater Free Press investigation found Nebraska counties spending settlement dollars on license-plate readers and police dogs while 43 counties that had received money spent none of it (our coverage).

Nationwide, more than $61 million in opioid settlement funds went to law-enforcement-related efforts in 2024 alone, according to a yearlong investigation by KFF Health News with researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Shatterproof, which built a database of more than 10,500 settlement expenditures. The settlement agreements themselves — which set out suggested uses precisely because the 1990s tobacco settlement money largely disappeared into unrelated budget line items — are the reason public reporting exists at all.

How to check what your own town is doing

The documents in this story are all public, and the same set exists for every county and eligible municipality in New Jersey:

• Find your subdivision's annual report. New Jersey DHS publishes the state and subdivision reports by October 1 each year at nj.gov/opioidfunds/important-documents/reports. Each county report contains a page per municipal subdivision: funds received, funds spent, programs funded, and whether the town engaged the public first.
• Ask your county advisory council. State law requires every county to maintain an advisory council on settlement spending, and it can also advise municipalities at their request.
• Report suspected waste. The comptroller's tip line — 1-855-OSC-TIPS (672-8477) — and email, comptrollertips@osc.nj.gov, exist for exactly this.

For families in Gloucester County and across South Jersey, the practical question behind all of this is simpler: whether the money that was supposed to reach treatment reached it. In New Jersey, drug overdose deaths in the 12 months ending in April 2026 totaled 1,494, down from 1,882 in the 12 months ending in January 2025, according to provisional CDC counts — a real decline that advocates have warned can reverse when access to care is not maintained.

Where to get help

If you or someone you love needs treatment now, you do not have to wait for a program to be funded:

• New Jersey ReachNJ — 1-844-732-2465, a 24/7 state hotline for substance use treatment and recovery support.
• SAMHSA National Helpline — 1-800-662-4357 (HELP), free, confidential, 24/7, English and Spanish.
• FindTreatment.gov — filter by insurance, Medicaid, payment type and location.
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988 for crisis support.
• Naloxone — Since January 2023, anyone 14 or older in New Jersey can obtain naloxone anonymously and at no cost at participating pharmacies across the state; our naloxone guide covers how and when to use it.
• Paying for care — our guides on finding treatment without insurance and paying for rehab walk through insurance, Medicaid and sliding-scale options.