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The three Rockbridge area jurisdictions recently passed resolutions to participate in the second wave of settlements from litigation against numerous opioid supply chain defendants. The settlements are part of a nationwide lawsuit against distributors and manufacturers of opioids.
“The settlements provide significant sums to state and local governments to help recover from the past harm suffered because of the opioid epidemic and to help fight the ongoing harms the epidemic continues to inflict on public entities,” wrote Vickie Huffman, Rockbridge County attorney, in a report last month to the Board of Supervisors.
page 8 The defendants agreed to pay $18.7 billion to state and local governments over a period of years. Virginia’s share of the settlement is expected to exceed $425 million. Many counties and cities throughout the state will receive payments directly as a result of the settlements, while other settlements are being paid to the state, which is pooling the money and redistributing it to localities throughout the commonwealth.
Locally, Rockbridge County has received, to date, $70,015, Lexington has received $27,721.96 and Buena Vista has received $22,434.34 from settlement payments. They will continue to receive payments directly from settlements through 2039.
The payments are directly from settlements from three separate lawsuits: one against the country’s three largest pharmaceutical distributors, McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen; one against manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceuticals; and one against manufacturer Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. The county, Lexington and Buena Vista will receive approximately $492,110 from the Distributors and Janssen settlements through 2039, while the exact amount and distribution of the Mallinckrodt settlement is still being determined.
Additionally, the localities will receive funds from the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority (OAA), which is distributing the funds paid to the states through the settlements. Rockbridge County, Buena Vista and Lexington will receive a combined total of approximately $175,442 from the OAA through 2039.
The OAA is also offering an additional payment called the “Gold Standard Incentive,” which will result in an extra 25 percent of the scheduled payment from the OAA to each locality that agrees to meet standards set forth by the OAA for how the funds can be spent. Those standards are based on the conditions of the various settlements and include a requirement that the money received only be spent to fund efforts to treat, prevent or reduce opioid abuse, that the funds can’t be used to supplant funding for any existing programs, and that localities must provide the OAA with information on how the funding will be implemented. The state has also set aside $12 million for grants to be used to help fund programs to treat opioid abuse.
The county, Lexington and Buena Vista are still trying to figure out how to best spend the money they will receive from these settlements, but they have all agreed to pool their money to best utilize the funds for the entire Rockbridge Area.
“The money is here to help people,” said Lexington City Manager Jim Halasz. “The settlements were reached to help people who have been under [the influence of] opioids in their lives for however many years. We want to use the dollars we have regionally, because the few dollars we have [individually] wouldn’t make enough difference, so we want to make sure we can put the dollars together and get a greater and more significant impact, wherever those dollars to go.”
“I think all three localities agree that pooling these funds together would have a greater impact versus us doing our own separate projects,” said Jason Tyree, Buena Vista city manager. “We want to ensure whatever we do has the greatest impact on this area as possible. We are starting to receive inquiries from nonprofits, government agencies, etc. so [the Lexington city manager and county administrator] and I will sit down at some point in the near future and lay out a plan on how we’d like to proceed and bring them to our boards/ councils. We don’t have any plans that we’ve agreed to yet but we are certainly having those discussions.”
Halasz also told The News-Gazette that several local organizations and facilities, including the Rockbridge Area Community Services Board, Rockbridge Regional Jail and local law enforcement organizations have been made aware of the available grant money and that some conversations have been had about potential projects that could be funded with some of that money, but none of the organizations have made any official decision to apply for any grants. The deadline for the first round of grant proposals to the state is May 5.
