Region cities begin receiving opioid settlement payouts
Virginia localities have begun to receive payments awarded as part of a legal settlement with three prescription opioid distributors to help fight the ongoing drug crisis.
Attorney General Jason Miyares announced the state will receive $15 million in the first payment, of which roughly $4 million will be dispersed across its 133 localities based on pre-determined percentages. The payments are part of a $26 billion settlement with three of the nation’s largest drug distribution companies — Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen — and opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson.
The first payments are from Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Johnson & Johnson will begin paying its portion “hopefully in a month or so,” said Victoria LaCivita, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office.
The share of the payments going to each of the Hampton Roads localities was negotiated by their respective attorneys based on the severity of their opioid impacts, LaCivita said.
Based on the percentage negotiated, the approximate payments to each Hampton Roads locality are as follows: Chesapeake — $118,400 Hampton — $62,500 Newport News — $83,200 Norfolk — $137,800 Portsmouth — $78,800 Suffolk — $28,900 Virginia Beach — $197,600 Williamsburg — $3,500 “The settlement will distribute funds based on population adjusted for the proportionate share of the opioid epidemic impact,” the National Prescription Opiate Litigation Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee said in a February statement. “The share of the impact is calculated using detailed, and objective national data, including the amount of opioids shipped to the state, the number of opioid related deaths that occurred in the state and the number of people who suffer opioid use disorder in the state.”
The majority of the localities across the state received their payments Friday, while the others will be receiving them by check this week, LaCivita said.
The payments are part of a national legal settlement negotiated to pay communities for abatement of the opioid epidemic. As part of the settlement, the three drug distributors will pay $21 billion over 18 years and Johnson & Johnson will pay $5 billion over nine years.
Virginia will receive $530 million in total. Of that, 15% will be distributed to local governments, another 15% will go to the Commonwealth of Virginia, and 70% will be distributed to the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority and other efforts to fight the opioid crisis.
The money will be paid out over the next 15 years, according to LaCivita.
The companies agreed to the settlement in February after about three years of negotiations to resolve more than 4,000 claims by state and local governments, according to the Attorney General’s Office. All 95 counties and 38 cities in Virginia signed onto the agreement.
“Now, Virginia communities will be able to take actionable steps to fight back against the opioid epidemic, knowing that more help is on the way,”Miyares said in a statement.
Opioid deaths have been increasing steadily in Virginia since 2016, the largest uptick coinciding with the first year of the COVID19 pandemic.
Last year was a record-setting year for overdose deaths from all drugs in the commonwealth for the third year in a row, up 15% from 2020. Of the 2,656 overdose deaths in 2021, fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, caused or contributed to 76.5%.