Groton to allocate opioid deal funds
Vote set for next week to give money to Community Speaks Out
Groton — The Town Council next week is scheduled to vote to distribute the latest portion of its share of the billions of dollars flowing to cities and towns nationwide from the national settlement with opioid distributors and manufacturers.
The council, at its March 7 meeting, will vote on a measure to award local nonprofit group Community Speaks Out the $112,907 the town received this year as well as a similar amount next year. The funds are from years two and three of what is expected to be 18 years of payments from the state’s share of the multistate $26 billion settlement with pharmaceutical distributors Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen and manufacturer Johnson & Johnson.
The dollar amount for year three is unknown but expected to exceed the year two payment because of other settlements involving pharmacy chains CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, said Groton Town Manager John Burt.
The council last year also allocated its first payment of $22,263 to Community Speaks Out.
The Town Council members, at last month’s working meeting, collectively congratulated Community Speaks Out on its ongoing efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and even debated merits of assigning the town’s entire 18-year’s worth of payments to the 7-year-old organization.
In the end, the council voted 6-2 on the current funding measure with councilors Portia Bordelon and David McBride showing support for Community Speaks Out but balking on the vote, in part, at the lack of information on future funds coming to the city.
Community Speaks Out, an all-volunteer group, provides resources for individuals and families battling and recovering from opioid addiction.
Joe de la Cruz and wife Tammy de la Cruz, who co-founded the group after learning of their own son’s addiction in 2014, said the money will at least kickstart the group’s plans to expand and find a larger space that would benefit people in recovery and allow the group to do things like host community meetings, training sessions and other events.
Joe de la Cruz said the sober events the group hosts now are incredibly well attended, “indicative of the number of people who are struggling.”
Both Tammy de la Cruz and Joe de la Cruz said they are confident that people who lost family members and friends to an opioid overdose do not want to see the billions of dollars in settlement money from pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors go to fill municipal budget gaps.
Community Speaks Out is currently funded mostly through donations from individuals and businesses.
Groton is one of the dozens of towns that have participated in the national opioid settlement litigation. Towns like Norwich and New London have set up special funds to be kept separate from the city’s general fund. Norwich is still debating the use of the $18,000 a year over 18 years. New London used its first payment of $16,715 to purchase naloxone kits.
New London Human Services Director Jeanne Milstein, appointed by the Gov. Ned Lamont to serve on the Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee, said further allocations in the city will come from recommendations of the Overdose Action Team, using “science and evidence-based practices.”
In her role on the state committee, Milstein said she will be “advocating vociferously not only for our community but making sure the money is spent in the most effective way possible.”