- State officials today said New Jersey stands to receive more than $19 million in new settlement money from eight drug makers that manufactured opioid products.

It's part of a larger nationwide agreement, but there's growing outrage over exactly how New Jersey is spending its portion of opioid settlement funds.

Lawmakers last month quietly opted to divert some $45 million away from harm reduction groups that help people struggling with addiction, and instead give it to four of the state's largest hospitals.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports as part of our Under the Dome series.

- I just came out a month ago from a hospital where they didn't even draw blood work when I told them I'm anemic, and that I had a blood transfusion a month before that.

And after four days, they just let me go when I was still throwing up, I was still going through the withdrawal.

- Edgardo "Chapo" Ramirez is struggling with drug addiction.

He's also working closely with a harm reduction program in Trenton called the KIND Collective that helps keep people safe while they use drugs.

He says it's been way more impactful than going to the hospital.

The KIND Collective is run by Jose Caraballo, who goes by JC.

- You touch down anywhere in the city of Trenton, they know who we are.

And we know, for instance, if we go to North Ward, we don't have to bring a lot of intravenous drug use equipment.

A lot of people out there are smokers, so we're bringing a lot of stems, right?

- It's still a tough sell for some, but the data shows that harm reduction works in bringing down overdose and other drug-related deaths.

And that's why the opioid settlement funds that New Jersey won in several lawsuits against companies found guilty of perpetuating the opioid epidemic were supposed to go to harm reduction programs doing the work on the ground.

That was the recommendation of the State Advisory Council assembled to help distribute the funds most effectively.

But these groups were dismayed to see $45 million diverted away from them and given to four hospitals in the state's next fiscal budget.

- It's personal for me because I experienced it.

The first time being sick off of heroin, I thought, "Go to a hospital.

"That's a safe haven.

"You got doctors there to protect you."

Worst thing I ever did.

I sat there for hours and hours, and they made me feel like I was a human.

- Harm reduction programs pride themselves on being able to understand the specific needs of their community down to what drugs they're taking and how they're impacted by those drugs in a way that they say hospitals really can't.

- In a time when the drug supply is changing again, I mean, again, I mean, we were just understanding zylozine.

Now we have to learn metatomidine.

We have to learn BTMPS.

Now those are all different withdrawals that now people need to, well, hospitals should be adapting to, and yet they're not.

- The New Jersey Hospital Association defended the role of hospitals in the fight against opioids, saying in a statement, "No one can do this work alone.

"Our hospitals work in concert "with community partners to save lives," adding that the money will be used for activities consistent with the opioid settlement agreements and federal guidelines.

Attorney General Matt Plotkin brought the suits that won the opioid settlement funds.

He's criticized the legislature and governor's decision to reappropriate them.

The governor acknowledged earlier this week that it was part of a messy budgeting process.

- In a perfect world, it's not where it would've landed for me, but a budget is a compromise with a lot of moving parts, and this is a good example of that.

But those care centers do extraordinary work.

And by the way, our hospitals deal with an enormous amount of opioid challenges as well.

- But for harm reduction experts, they say there's just no match for how they can meet the needs of their neighbors, supplying Narcan, drug testing strips, wound care packages like this one that Chapo is using to treat a chronic wound caused by xylosine use.

- Simple things like this will help people maintain their ulcers or their wounds.

All this put together right here, this is over $100 worth of supplies.

And we give it to people without asking questions, without saying sign a form.

No, no, take it.

But hospitals, that's not how they operate.

That's why this is frustrating.

If you want to really, if you care about this community and you really want to help them, you have to rely on the experts.

And we're the experts, not you.

- They say they need the funding to expand their capacity to reach more people, especially as new deadly drugs are making their way into the street drug supply in the last few months.

In Trenton, I'm Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.

- "Under the Dome" is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

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