SC to get $300M out of major opioid settlement to help with treatment, recovery
South Carolina will get more than $300 million from a national opioid settlement with the country’s major pharmaceutical companies.
The money comes from a $26 billion settlement with pharmaceutical distributors Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, as well as Johnson and Johnson.
Money from the lawsuit will be paid over 18 years, the South Carolina Attorney General’s office said.
The attorney general’s office said 92% of South Carolina’s share will be used for treatment, recovery, harm reduction and other strategies to address the opioid crisis in the state. The remaining 8% will pay attorneys’ fees.
“These settlements will provide much-needed financial resources which will help combat South Carolina’s opioid epidemic,” Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement. “My office looks forward to working with stakeholders around the state to ensure that these dollars have the greatest impact possible in each of our communities.”
The opioid crisis has affected the Pee Dee region especially hard.
Horry County, in its initial lawsuit against AmerisourceBergen, said the crisis led to an “opioid prescription rate of 110.7 prescriptions per 100 persons, one of the highest in the state of South Carolina.”
Horry County said 101 people died of opioid overdoses in 2016. That number climbed to 131 deaths as of 2019.
Millions of dollars from the settlement is for Horry and Dillon counties, officials from those areas have said.
The attorney general’s office said it would advise a nine-person board, which will determine how the money is distributed. Members would be appointed by the governor’s office, the Legislature and appointments from municipal governments. Details of how the appointments will be made will be worked out during the next several months.
“Pot holes won’t be paved with this money,” said state Sen. Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston, whose firm Motley Rice worked on the settlement. “Evidence-based treatment programs, recovery and prevention centers, law enforcement training and other tools to abate the opioid epidemic are the big winners here.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 8:50 AM.
