The Greenbrier County Commission has joined White Sulphur Springs in a potential opioid settlement fund distribution guided by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
County attorney Britt Ludwig explained “Greenbrier County is a participant in the national opioid litigation, and as are several municipalities and counties throughout West Virginia. The Attorney General has, in concert with some of the counties, municipalities and their counsel, drafted a first memorandum of understanding in order or in anticipation of settlement proceeds being received.”
The same memorandum of understanding was recently approved by the White Sulphur Springs City Council in March (see “White Sulphur council agrees majority of opioid lawsuit funds to go state nonprofit” at wvdn.com/29308/)
According to the memorandum of understanding (MOU), the settlement will “organize a private, nonstock, nonprofit corporation for the purposes of receiving and distributing West Virginia Opioid Funds”. This nonprofit organization (referred to as a “foundation” in the MOU) will not be specific to one opioid case – it is designed to accept funds from all West Virginia opioid settlements, consent judgements, and even donations.
One of the attorneys working on behalf of municipalities, Rusty Webb, explained this would include funds gathered from lawsuits against drug distributors such as Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, and McKesson; drug manufacturers such as the in-bankruptcy companies Purdue Pharma and Mallinckrodt; and franchise pharmacies such as CVS, Walmart, Walgreens, and other similar businesses.
The MOU states that of this money, 24.5 percent will be allocated directly to any local governments. Of this, “one-half,” 12.25 percent of the total funds, “may be used to provide restitution for monies that were previously expended on opioid abatement activities, including law enforcement and regional jail fees.”
“This was a method to try and utilize those funds to address the opioid problem rather than have the funds subject to potential disbursement to non-opioid-related issues, as you may remember what happened with the tobacco settlement years ago,” Ludwig explained. “Approximately 1/3 will be going to local governments directly. The other two thirds will be distributed through a foundation … guided by an expert panel, as well as the eleven members of the foundation. They will evaluate projects in accordance with the memorandum of understanding.”
This could also include reimbursing counties for the costs associated with law enforcement and the opioid epidemic.
“I believe it’s 50% of the proceeds distributed on this table can be used for the past expenditures, which is basically restitution for the amount of money that county has … had to expand in the past to address the problem. Then 50% will be for projects that the counties and municipalities implement that are in accordance with the foundation principles, which are directly related to the opioid problem.”
Commissioner Tammy Shifflett-Tincher, however, noted “you could use the full amount for projects versus restitution, if you wish.” Ludwig confirmed this was the case, saying “they just wanted to limit the amount of money that you use for restitution.”
Tincher also asked how the amount of money for each county and municipality was determined.
“I cannot tell you for certain because that has not been fully explained,” Ludwig said. “I believe that is a compilation of a couple of things, not just per capita number of residents that the county has, or the municipality has, but also the extent of the problem. I believe that opioid-related overdose deaths were used as part of that, as well as probably some figures about incarceration and some other things. I don’t think it was just a straight calculation. … I have to admit I do not know for certain what the calculation is.”
After an executive session, the commission unanimously approved Rose to sign the memorandum of understanding.
