In July 2021, Oregon reached a resolution with opioid manufacturers and distributors over their role in fueling the opioid epidemic. About $333 million will be awarded to the state, over 18 years, starting this year. There is now a new website to share how settlement funds will be used.
Forty-five percent of the massive award will be allocated to a new Opioid Settlement Prevention, Treatment and Recovery fund managed by the Oregon Health Authority. Their newly launched OHA website has background on the litigation against the pharmaceutical industry. The state will receive nearly $270,386,380 over 18 payments. Two will be made in 2022 then they will be doled out annually.
The OHA opioid settlement website also offers people the opportunity to apply to serve on the new 18-person board which will determine how the settlement is spent.
Fifty-five percent of the $333 million will go to cities and counties with populations over 10,000. Oregon followed the model developed through the national opioid settlement to determine how much funding each eligible city and county would receive.
From an OHA release: A review of State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) and Oregon death certificate data by analysts from OHA’s Injury and Violence Prevention Section found that unintentional/undetermined drug overdose deaths increased from 496 in 2019 to 1,072 in 2021. The 2021 figure doesn’t include all fourth-quarter overdose deaths, which are still being tallied and analyzed.
The number of unintentional/undetermined fentanyl overdose deaths jumped more than 600% between 2019 and 2021, from 71 to 509, respectively.
A physician and fentanyl expert with Oregon’s opioid treatment authority said the settlement money will “help communities begin healing from the ravages caused by the pervasiveness of these drugs over the last decade.”
About $503 million from Distributor and Janssen Settlement is going directly to federally recognized tribes. Oregon tribes are eligible for funds regardless of whether they were part of an opioid lawsuit.
