Ashland County Sheriff Received $228 Thousand to Aid the Fight Against Opioids

ASHLAND, Wis. — It kills more Wisconsinites a year than car crashes. Opioids, a powerful prescribed painkiller, has overwhelmed communities across the country. In 2023, Wisconsin saw just over 1,300 opioid-related deaths. To combat rising opioid death rates, the state of Wisconsin has announced grants being awarded to law enforcement agencies state-wide. 

“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 Attorney General Josh Kaul.

Wisconsin’s Attorney General Josh Kaul came to Ashland, on Thursday, as part of his state-wide effort to combat the opioid crisis. Wisconsin will receive $750 million dollars from pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid epidemic. The state will allocate these funds through 2038 to try to prevent and reduce the dangers to the public.

“Given our opioid epidemic in the county, we weren’t really seeing results. Reoffenders going back to jail,” said Ashland County Sheriff Brian Zupke. “And this program seemed to help establish some kind of program where they can come in and get those services. We can have an intervention in jail, so supply counseling and then have an exit plan for them as well.”

The Ashland County Sheriff’s Department was awarded $228 thousand to treat incarcerated people who struggle with opioid use. 11 other law enforcement agencies were also awarded these grants. 70% of the funds will go towards counties and local governments. 30% will go to the state’s Department of Health Services.

“Right now in facilities in Wisconsin, correctional facilities and jails, a huge percentage of people who arrive in the facilities come with an opioid use disorder or with a mental health challenge, or in many cases both,” said Kaul.

The county plans to start Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for incarcerated peoples. These treatments utilize drugs like Methadone, Buprenorphine, and Naltrexone allow the addict to taper off from their dependency.

“We’ve been talking about MAT in the jail for several years and the biggest hurdle has been resources,” said Terry Barningham, the director of Ashland County Department of Health and Human Services. “We didn’t have funding, we didn’t have staff available to do it. And so this grant, almost a quarter of a million dollars will really help us get this program growing.”

Other projects aim to train staff to treat dependency, connecting users to social services, and distributing community drug disposal stations.

“And it’s also the right thing to do to make sure that treatment is available to people so that they have a chance to succeed for their own reasons as they’re reentering after incarceration,” said Kaul.

“And they may reoffend in the future, but we’ll start that program over again and not give up on them,” said Zupke.