The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a plan to use money from a recent successful lawsuit against the opioid industry to fund programs that will help people addicted to opioid-based drugs.
In all, the county expects to receive $26 million over 18 years to address the growing need for programs and services.
The money comes from a lawsuit that was settled in 2021 against the nation’s three largest pharmaceutical distributors–McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen, and against manufacturer Johnson & Johnson.
In 2022, additional agreements with CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart—and two additional manufacturers, Allergan and Teva—brought more funds.
According to county officials, nearly 645,000 people died in the United States from opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2021.
This began with doctors over-prescribing of OxyContin, then for many people evolved into a heroin addiction.
According to Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency (HSA) Director Monica Morales, California saw a 121% spike in opioid deaths between 2019 and 2021.
Santa Cruz County, she said, ranks 13th in the state for opioid deaths.
“That’s devastating for our communities,” she said. “The need is really dire.”
In 2018, Santa Cruz County retained outside counsel Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd (Robbins Geller) and filed a complaint against 14 opioid manufacturers and distributors, alleging that “they falsely marketed, unlawfully promoted, and dispensed opioids in ways that the industry knew to be dangerous, addictive, and prone to abuse,” the county stated.
The County’s case was combined with thousands of other opioid cases.
HSA’s Director of Substance Use Disorder Services Casey Swank said the county already has a “pretty robust” system of 96 treatment beds for addiction services.
This will expand thanks to the settlement funds, she said.
But Swank pointed out that the funds are not discretionary.
Instead, they must go toward substance use disorder facilities, new or expanded treatment treatment infrastructure, addressing need for such services in communities of color and vulnerable populations.
They can also be used to help people with substance use disorder get into treatment and out of the justice system and provide interventions for young people.
“If we want to change the curve in this epidemic, we need to focus on our youth, and we really need to highlight prevention,” Morales said.
Supervisor Manu Koenig said that the funds are a good start in addressing the growing problem.
“$26 million dollars over 18 years is a chunk of change, but it’s probably not enough given the size and persistence of the problem, and the cost of treating people once they are addicted to opiates,” he said.
All very well indeed, but you can’t make a horse drink the water. No one forces people to become addicts. It’s a personal decision they made. No one forces people to take meth, heroin or excess pain pills that starts addiction. Drug usage and stupidity caused people to become homeless, unemployed and mentally ill from all the substances they fill their bodies and burn their brains with and fuels all the other things that come with drug addiction including prostitution, crime and death. I’d rather see my tax dollars go to people who don’t take drugs and blame all their troubles on their own bad decisions. The drug users are already getting free medical, food and housing. We are perpetuating the drug problems in our community by supporting the addicts instead of charging them with their crimes. Spend this money on people who want to get an education or skills to better themselves. Give the money to Cabrillo so kids can go to school tuition free.
Right now, high schoolers can go to Cabrillo for FREE for 2 years if they go immediately into Cabrillo after 12th grade!
You should really read a book about opioid addiction before saying literally anything about this serious issue.
Many opioid addicts started their substance abuse b y taking prescription drugs. Opioid drugs were overprescribed by doctors in part because the manufacturers claimed, falsely, that the risks were minimal and encouraged prescribing the drugs. Prescription drug distributors failed to comply with the federal laws that required them to monitor prescriptions and red flag apparent over prescription, exacerbating the problem. Later the prescription opioids were laced with fentanyl, as fentanyl flooded into the country. It’s the role of the drug manufacturers and distributors that led to the litigation and the large settlements. By the terms of the settlement, the $$ must be used for addiction prevention and treatment — they cannot be diverted to other services. These are not tax dollars; they are $$ paid by corporations to settle litigation.