Hundreds of thousands of dollars are flowing into Thurston County annually following settlements from state and county lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, distributors and marketers.
County public health and social services staff presented an overview during a Wednesday Thurston County Board of Commissioners work session of the funding allocations that the county has been receiving since 2021, as well as its engagement efforts to attack the opioid epidemic.
Thurston County filed a lawsuit in 2018, along with Washington state and other local jurisdictions, against companies involved in opioid manufacturing, distribution and marketing. Multiple lawsuits have been finalized between 2022 and 2024, and additional settlements are possible as opioid litigation continues.
To date, Thurston County has received nearly $3.5 million in settlements from 11 companies, including three distributors. Officials project that the county will have collected a total of nearly $10.4 million in settlement funds through 2038. Washington state and the cities of Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater are also receiving settlement payments.
Katie Strozyk, county opioid and overdose response program manager, told the commissioners that the county, as well as other jurisdictions, is not allowed to touch its funds as part of the One Washington Memorandum of Understanding. The MOU outlines requirements that must be met by jurisdictions prior to their spending settlement funds. It also prompted the formation of the county’s opioid abatement council.
Strozyk said the payments to the county were frontloaded, with only a small percentage of the total funding allocated through ongoing annual payments. Three settlements had a one-time lump sum payment.
“They’ve made it extremely clear in the MOU that there are only certain allowable uses for the funding. We can’t just take it and do things like roads or other projects,” she said. “We received multiple settlements that had one-time allocations, multiple settlements that were paid half up front and then some of the settlements have smaller payments over that seven to 17 years. There’s a lot of money that’s received in years one, two and three.”
Funds are shared by Washington state and its counties and cities with populations over 10,000 people. Half of the funds are allocated to the state, and the other half is distributed to participating local governments. Of that half that goes to smaller jurisdictions, Thurston County is allocated 2.3%, Lacey will receive 0.23%, Olympia collects 0.60%, and Tumwater brings in 0.21%.
Businesses sending settlement funds include Teva, Allergan, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, McKinsey, Janssen, Kroger, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health.
Thurston County will receive $4.8 million from the three distributors over an 18-year period, and three companies — CVS, Walgreens and Janssen — dished out over $1 million each.
As part of its engagement efforts, Thurston County is the co-chair of the State Opioid and Overdose Response Plan (SOORP) Communications Work Group and co-chair of the statewide opioid abatement council. The county has also assisted in writing multiple state settlement proposals for SOORP spending priorities and participates in the state health care authority’s Opioid Settlement Learning Collaborative.
County public health and social services officials will meet with the commissioners again next week to discuss how the county would like to spend the settlement funds as per the MOU.
Opioid settlements can be tracked online at opioidsettlementtracker.com.
