More than $50 billion in opioid settlement money is being paid to state and local governments by companies that manufactured, sold or distributed painkillers, and Santa Barbara County is getting some of that money.
Allocations so far include money from pharmaceutical distributors (AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson) and Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, according to KFF Health News. Other companies that will pay settlement money include Johnson & Johnson, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Allergan and Teva.
KFF Health News recently published documents from BrownGreer, a court-appointed firm administering the settlement, with the dollar amounts.
Santa Barbara County has been allocated $3.77 million, and the money is being held in a fund balance while a plan is developed for spending it, spokeswoman Kelsey Gerckens Buttitta said.
Public Health Director Dr. Mouhanad Hammami is heading that effort, which will “coordinate and expand activities focusing on prevention through education, awareness and public campaigns, treatment of addiction and harm reduction through Narcan distribution,” Gerckens Buttitta said.
The cities of Santa Barbara and Lompoc also have been allocated settlement money.
Lompoc had received $88,531.97 as of this week, according to city officials. The settlement documents indicate the city should receive more, a little more than $123,000.
The first payment was received in December, and the money is being held in a restricted account within the city’s general fund, according to the city’s management services department.
“The city has five years from the date of receipt to spend the funds and is currently evaluating possible programs for program compliance and expected effectiveness,” staff said in an emailed statement.
Santa Barbara has received $197,181.88 from pharmaceutical distributor settlement payments.
The City Council allocated the money to the Police Department, “and they are still assessing the best use of the funds,” Assistant City Administrator René Eyerly told Noozhawk.
“More than 250,000 Americans have died of overdoses from prescription opioids, which were aggressively promoted as painkillers and distributed by a host of health care companies, including Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, McKesson and Walmart. The settlements are meant to compensate and remediate the effects of that corporate behavior,” KFF Health News reporter Anari Pattani wrote in March.
In Santa Barbara County, overdose deaths related to fentanyl have more than tripled between 2020 and 2022, according to data released by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
The Sheriff’s Office reported a total of 168 overdose deaths occurring in 2022, with 115 of these deaths involving fentanyl.
As the number of local opioid overdoses increased, so did the use of naloxone (also known by brand name Narcan), which reverses opioid overdoses.
Agencies have expanded access to free Narcan nasal sprays in the hopes it helps prevent fatal overdoses from fentanyl and other opioids.
More information on opioids, Narcan and local efforts, as well as on how to receive Narcan for free in Santa Barbara County, can be found on the Santa Barbara Opioid Safety Coalition’s website and on the Behavior Wellness Fentanyl Is Forever website, Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz has reported.
