« It’s not enough, but it’s a good start, » one lawyer said of settlement to fund local treatment and education efforts.
Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three major distributors finalized nationwide settlements over their roles in Friday, an announcement that clears the way for $26 billion to flow to nearly every state in the U.S. Taken together, the settlements are the largest to date among the many that have been playing out across the country. They’re expected to provide a significant boost to efforts aimed at reversing the crisis in places that have been devastated by it, including. Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson announced the settlement plan last year, but the deal was contingent on getting participation from a critical mass of state and local governments. Friday was the deadline for the companies to announce whether they felt enough state and local governments had committed to participate in the settlement and relinquish the right to sue. The four companies notified lawyers for the governments in the case that their thresholds were met, but did not specify an exact number. The money could start flowing to thousands of counties and municipalities as well as states by April. « We’re never going to have enough money to immediately cure this problem, » said Joe Rice, one of the lead lawyers who represented local governments in the litigation that led to the settlement. « What we’re trying to do is give a lot of small communities a chance to try to change some of their problems. » While none of the settlement money will go directly to victims of opioid addiction or their survivors, the vast majority of it is required to be used to deal with the epidemic. The need for local government funding of addiction and health education programs runs deep. Kathleen Noonan, CEO of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers in Camden, N.J., said a portion of the settlement money should be used to provide housing to people with addictions who are homeless. « We have clients who have a hard time staying clean to make it in a shelter, » she said. « We would like to stabilize them so we can help them recover. » Dan Keashen, a spokesman for Camden County government, said officials are thinking about using settlement money for a public education campaign to warn about the dangers of fentanyl. They also want to send more drug counselors into the streets, put additional social workers in municipal courts and pay for anti-addiction medications in the county jail. Officials across the country are considering pumping the money into similar priorities. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget calls for using $50 million of the state’s expected $86 million share this year to fund youth opioid education and to train treatment providers, improve data collection and distribute naloxone, a drug that reverses overdoses. In Florida’s Broward County, home to Fort Lauderdale, the number of beds in a county-run detoxification facility could be expanded to 70 or 75 from the current 50, said Danielle Wang French, a lawyer for the county.
