Opioid Dependence: New York Hires 500 People with Money from Manufacturers

(New York) The mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, announced on Thursday the recruitment of 500 people to help those struggling with addictions, as part of a $12 million program funded by money from agreements with opioid manufacturers.

The recruited individuals will be former alcohol or drug consumers who have recovered and have been trained to support others.

The goal of this four-year program is to reduce the number of deaths from overdoses (2192 deaths in 2024 for the city of New York alone).

“Too few people have access to treatments and resources for addictions,” said the Democratic mayor, speaking from an addiction treatment center in Brooklyn.

Like other cities and states in the United States, New York receives a share of the proceeds from extensive financial agreements with pharmaceutical companies, which have played a central role in the onset and exacerbation of the opioid crisis.

In June 2025, the city had already received $190 million for this purpose and is expected to receive $550 million by 2041, according to local media.

Between 1999 and 2023, approximately 806,000 people died from opioid-related overdoses in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers and distributors are accused of encouraging massive prescriptions of painkillers like OxyContin starting in the 1990s while concealing their highly addictive potential.

Last year, several American states reached an agreement with Purdue and the former owning family, the Sacklers, as part of a bankruptcy plan that would see funds redistributed to communities and individuals affected by this public health crisis.