The Monongalia County Commission in West Virginia has approved spending up to $180,000 of the county's opioid settlement money on 20 Flock artificial intelligence license plate cameras. That's money that was supposed to help families and communities recover from the opioid epidemic — not fund a surveillance network.

West Virginia is still living through the fallout of an opioid crisis that pharmaceutical companies were forced to pay billions of dollars to help fix. Instead of expanding treatment programs, funding recovery housing, or paying for services like methadone clinics that actually help people get and stay clean, county leaders chose license plate readers.

Residents haven't stayed quiet. Every Wednesday morning, community members gather outside the Monongalia County Courthouse to protest the decision. Harrison York, a West Virginia University student whose own family has struggled with addiction, put it plainly: "The thing that got my family members clean were methadone services, and that's what this opioid settlement money should be used for," according to Mother Jones.

The commission still has the chance to reverse course before more of this money is spent. Other localities, like Pensacola, Florida, have already reversed similar decisions after residents pushed back — proving that public pressure works.

This money exists because families across West Virginia lost loved ones to opioid addiction. It belongs in treatment centers and recovery programs, not in a camera network. Sign the petition to demand the Monongalia County Commission redirect its opioid settlement funds away from Flock cameras and into addiction treatment and recovery services — before more lives are lost waiting for help that never comes.