The Kansas Department of Corrections is using opioid settlement funds to pay for a program to reduce opioid overdose deaths. Opioids like fentanyl are a major driver of rapidly rising overdose deaths in Kansas. Also, headlines from across the metro.

One of the many ways the state of Kansas and community organizations are spending funds from national legal settlements against prescription opioid makers is to pay for a program aimed at reducing opioid overdose deaths. The state expects to receive more than $340 million over the next 18 years. Dylan Lysen, of The Kansas News Service, broke down the threat of overdose among people leaving prison, and how the distribution of naloxone, a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose, could save lives.

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Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Gabe Rosenberg, Madeline Fox and Lisa Rodriguez.

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