Oregon Opioid Settlement: Oregon is gradually receiving settlement funds from a lawsuit filed in response to the state’s opioid crisis. Captain Lee Eby of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office will assist in the distribution of the funds. He serves as vice chair of the Oregon Opioid Settlement’s Treatment, Prevention, and Recovery Board.
Next Step For Oregon Opioid Settlement Fund
The board met for the first time in 2019 on January 4. Eby believes that education is the board’s top priority right now. State officials met on Wednesday to hear presentations from addiction and recovery specialists before deciding how to distribute the state’s share of the settlement money. We need to be as well-informed as possible if we are to make good decisions for Oregonians.
A global litigation settlement against four companies was reached in 2021 for their role in the nation’s opioid crisis, which has killed more than 564,000 people since 2000, according to CDC data, and will result in Oregon receiving approximately $325 million over the next 18 years.
The state will receive 45% of the opioid settlement funds, with local governments receiving the remaining 55%, according to the Oregon Health Authority. Eby and the OSPTR advisory board are facilitating the remaining 45%, or approximately $147 million spread out over 18 years.
“I hope to affect change in the world. For that reason, I believe the board can effectively use the allocated monies “When asked why he decided to join the board, Eby answered the following.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced in December 2021 that an agreement was nearing between the state and Oregon’s cities and counties regarding the distribution of Oregon’s portion of the historic $26 billion national settlement with the three largest opioid distributors (McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health) and drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson.
The opioid crisis has devastated families and communities across Oregon, and Rosenblum believes these corporations are to blame.
Oregon will receive over $100M from the opiod settlement. @OHAOregon lists clean needles as the number one usage for these funds. $100M of clean needles for our drug users. This is criminalhttps://t.co/xdamWTCyCt
— PDX_Hopeful! (@PdxHopeful) January 6, 2023
The OSPTR board of 18 is in charge of deciding how the funds should be allocated within the parameters set by the state government and the national settlement. The settlement, according to the Oregon Health Authority’s website, requires that the money be spent on specific programmes to assist those struggling with opioid addiction. It is prohibited to use them for any other purpose.
The OHA lists a number of permissible uses for this money, such as, but not limited to:
- The increasing availability of harm-reduction tools like naloxone and clean needles is crucial.
- Growing access to pharmacological interventions
- Providing a variety of services to help people get better, such as residential treatment centers, outpatient clinics, and sober living environments
- Increasing access to therapy and rehabilitation for pregnant and postpartum women.
- Increasing access to rehabilitation programs for those involved with or leaving the criminal justice system
- Programs for the Education and Training in the Prevention of Opioid Abuse
Dealing with it downstream, on the other hand, is “more economically responsible and slightly more efficient than focusing on education and prevention,” as he put it.
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