Oklahoma pulls back curtain on opioid settlement money, but victims’ families still have questions

KOSU by Sierra Pfeifer, September 16, 2025 

From the panhandle to its eastern border, the opioid crisis has reached every corner of Oklahoma. Visit any of the state’s 77 counties, any school district, tribe or community, and you will meet people who have lost a loved one or seen them struggle.

At the peak of the crisis in 2023, 810 people died of opioid overdoses in Oklahoma, adding to thousands more deaths over the course of a decade.

In the last six years, nearly 40% of the people who have died, including Diane Searle’s daughter, have been younger than 35.

“And for the parents that think, ‘oh, my kid would never do that,'” Searle said. “Those are very dangerous words, because I have 452 families that you can talk to.”

Searle started an advocacy and support group in Tulsa, called Families Supporting Families, after she lost her 19-year-old daughter, Jillian, to a heroin overdose in 2018.

“She had a great sense of humor. She was like the clown of the whole house. She loved animals. She loved her siblings,” said Searle, who wears a picture of Jillian on a purple lanyard around her neck. “She never thought she was popular. It was something she always struggled with. She’s absolutely beautiful and she never really thought she was either.”

Families Supporting Families was made up of five mothers but quickly grew, Searle said. At first, she’d find people through obituaries or newspaper articles. Now, they find her. A registered nonprofit, the group hands out harm reduction supplies, holds assemblies at local schools, helps parents navigate legal battles and pools together money for overdose-awareness billboards.

As a direct result of deaths of Oklahomans like Searle’s daughter, the state has won more than $900 million from the distributors, pharmacies and companies that profited most from opioid sales. It’s a portion of the nearly $50 billion in settlement funds awarded via lawsuits to states so far.

The money comes from lawsuits filed by attorneys general throughout the country claiming corporations misleadingly promoted prescription opioids, leading to widespread addiction and devastation.

In 2019, out of more than 2,000 others filed around the nation, an Oklahoma lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson was the first case against an opioid manufacturer to go to trial. A ruling ordering the manufacturer to pay the state millions was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, but litigation inspired legal action against other companies in the industry.

Now, Searle and other community members have questions about where the money is going — and whether it’s helping those most in need.

“It should be public knowledge,” Searle said. “My kid died from opiates, she’s one of the statistics from that, so we should have public knowledge of what you’re spending it on.”

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