The Attorney General of Kentucky announced members of a group who will oversee the settlement money's allocation that will be used to combat opioid addiction in the state.
The state has reached a $483 million settlement with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three major distributors and will receive the payments from the nationwide settlement of $26 billion.
The attorney general of the state has announced the members of the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission to deal with the opioid addiction epidemic and has declared the crisis as the greatest public safety challenge of the state's lifetime.
As per the agreement, half of the settlement amount would be allotted to cities and counties for opioid-abuse abatement efforts. The other half of the settlement would be overseen by the commission. The state would implement relevant projects, including intervention, treatment and recovery services to deal with the crisis.
The commission will soon meet to finalize the framework do the fund distribution. He even encouraged all the officials involved in the agreement to come forward with suitable solutions that will help the state to break the cycle of opioid addiction.
The members of the commission would include the state treasurer, state representative and secretary of the state's Health and Family Services. It will even include stakeholders from the prevention and treatment community, victims of the opioid crisis and law enforcement. The executive director of the attorney general’s Office of Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Control will serve as the commission's executive director.
Fentanyl, which is a powerful synthetic opioid, is the prime reason for the fatal drug overdose surge in Kentucky.
