A settlement from a lawsuit against three opioid distributors would net Tarrant County $8.4 million.
County commissioners opted to take around $2.2 million. According to the settlement agreement, the remaining $6.2 million will be disbursed over the next several months and years. County authorities have not yet chosen how to spend the funds.
In an email, the communications and policy director stated that there are presently no concrete plans for the settlement cash. These will be deposited in the general fund and used as needed throughout the budgeting process.
In addition to the $8.4 million allocated to Tarrant County, the area will benefit from millions more in funding to fund preventive and harm reduction initiatives. The funds came from a $1.167 billion settlement the state reached with three pharmaceutical distributors: Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen.
The distributors were accused of contributing to the opioid crisis in the United States by supplying enormous amounts of prescription opioids to pharmacies, hospitals, and physicians' offices. As part of the deal, the corporations did not confess to any wrongdoing.
This settlement is one of many made around the country against firms that produced, promoted, or supplied prescription opioids. In the 1990s, an increase in prescription opioids caused a public health disaster. Last year, over 80,000 people died as a result of an opioid-related overdose, and many more continue to suffer from opioid use disorder.
Tarrant County will get a relatively modest fraction of the $1.167 billion settlement amount. Direct grants will also be made to other counties, cities, and hospital districts.
Although these monies are not mandated to be used on treating or preventing drug use, activists in Texas and around the country have pushed state and local governments to spend them on those who have suffered the most as a result of the opioid crisis, as well as on avoiding future fatalities.
Because the financing that goes directly to towns has no conditions attached to it, it has greater discretion to be utilized to pay for a complete response to drug and alcohol use disorder, as well as to prevent it from occurring in the first place.
According to a vice president at Parkland Health and Hospital System who is also a member of the Texas Opioid Abatement Council, the majority of the money from this settlement will be channelled via the council. The council intends to distribute funds through grants, and all funds must be used to treat opioid use disorder, prevent overdoses, and prevent opioid use in the first place.
