Chicago announces new funding to battle opioid crisis

CHICAGO (AP) - The city of Chicago is spending an additional $225,000 to battle the opioid epidemic.

In a news release, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office says the money is being spent on a new partnership between the city's health department and a group called the Chicago Recovery Alliance to expand community interventions, place-based behavioral support and opioid addiction treatment on the city's South and West Sides.

The alliance is partnering with groups to hire and train people who have experienced opioid addiction to work as peer health workers. Those workers will do things like distribute the opioid antidote naloxone, provide educational material and help people find treatment.

Chicago also announced this week it is battling the nationwide epidemic on another front: with a lawsuit against three opioid distributors.