Get the Daily News Digest in your inbox each morning. Sign Up

AG Marshall: Alabama to receive additional $220 million in opioid settlement funds

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama secured an additional $220 million in opioid settlement funds from two opioid distributors, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office announced on recently.

The two companies, Cardinal Health and Cencora, had each offered joint settlements to state attorney generals in which states would receive a lump sum as compensation for the companies’ roles in the opioid epidemic. 

Marshall declined to participate in the joint settlement, and instead pursued an Alabama-specific settlement.

“Today reaffirmed our decision to decline participation in the national opioid settlement with Cardinal and Cencora, as that proposal failed to adequately acknowledge the unique harms faced by Alabamians,” Marshall said in a statement. 

“While this settlement will not bring back those lost to this devastating epidemic, it presents a historic opportunity to ameliorate the harm that opioid abuse has caused in our communities and to finally move us out of this epidemic altogether.”

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the exponentially increasing rate of opioid-related fatal overdoses in the United States over time.

The agreement will see both companies pay a combined $220 million to Alabama over a ten-year period, with funds required to be used only on combating the opioid epidemic either through treatment or prevention initiatives. Funds will be deposited into the state’s General Fund until allocated by lawmakers.

Before the settlement, Alabama had already amassed more than $500 million from opioid-related settlements with drug companies, bringing the total of money the state has to combat the opioid epidemic up to more than $720 million.

Last summer, a new committee comprised of lawmakers and state agency leadership was established to recommend how to best use the state’s opioid settlement money. The Opioid Settlement Oversight Committee has heard pitches from nonprofits, state agencies and businesses over the past several months as to how best use those funds.

Holding its fourth and final public hearing in February, the committee now plans to hold several work sessions to deliberate and finalize spending recommendations to lawmakers for use in the 2025 budget.

State agencies including the Departments of Veterans’ Affairs and Mental Health have both asked for a portion of the opioid settlement money, as have dozens of rehabilitation nonprofit organizations. The University of Alabama Health Systems has also asked for a portion of the funds, as did Alabama Public Television and several tech startup companies.

Last summer, Marshall secured nearly $249 million in opioid settlement money from drugmakers Teva and Allergan, and pharmacies CVS and Walgreens.

Alabama was hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic, which in 2015, had more opioid prescriptions than people, and had the highest number of opioid prescriptions per capita in the nation. More than 1,400 Alabamians died from overdoses in 2021, roughly 75% of which were from opioids.

Nationally, close to 107,000 Americans died in 2021 from overdoses, the vast majority of them involving opioids, and 66% involved synthetic opioids, which includes fentanyl.

Get the Daily News Digest in your inbox each morning.

Name(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Web Development By Infomedia