A Greeneville attorney is urging utilities in Northeast Tennessee to join a new lawsuit against manufacturers of potentially cancer-causing chemicals.

Greene County will receive $333,803 in opioid abatement trust funds from the Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council, according to the state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

The Opioid Abatement Council is making the first payments from opioid lawsuit settlements to counties totaling more than $31.4 million, a news release Friday states.

The state began processing direct payments from the Opioid Abatement Trust Fund to county governments this week.

Payments from these settlements, while not as large as this initial payment, will continue annually for 18 years.

In accordance with terms of the Distributor and Janssen/J&J settlement agreements negotiated by the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, 35% of proceeds went directly to county governments “so that local leaders could direct spending on programs to address the effects of opioids on their citizens and communities,” the release states.

County leaders will be able to select various forms of treatment-related activities from a list approved in 2022 by the council. Approved uses “include a continuum of opioid use disorder treatment programs, medication assisted treatment, recovery supports, and prevention measures.”

Uses include training related to and increasing the distribution of nalaxone or other Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs to reverse opioid overdoses.

Increased distribution of medication-assisted treatment and other opioid-related treatment to individuals who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover the needed service is also included on the list, along with education services to school-based youth and “youth-focused programs that discourage or prevent misuse.”

Funds could also be used to provide treatment and recovery support services such as residential and inpatient treatment, intensive outpatient therapy or counseling, and recovery housing to “allow or integrate medication and with other support services.”

Other state-approved uses for the funds included treatment for pregnant and postpartum women, expanding treatment for neonatal abstinence syndrome, treatment for incarcerated populations and funding for media campaign programs to prevent opioid use.

“There isn’t a county in Tennessee that hasn’t been touched by the opioid crisis. The funding going to these counties will have an immediate and much-needed impact. We are excited to get this funding out to all 95 counties of our great state, and we can’t wait to see how local leaders put it to good use,” said Dr. Stephen Loyd, Opioid Abatement Council chairman.

Loyd is a native of the Telford-Limestone area.

The remaining 65% of settlement dollars will be distributed through a competitive grant application process to be established by the Opioid Abatement Council. The processes for applying for funding and scoring applications are on the agenda for the council’s next meeting at the end of February, the news release states.

The first payments to come from the Opioid Abatement Trust fund “mark a milestone in the state’s work to address the effects of the opioid crisis,” the release states.

“While no amount of money will be enough to completely heal broken communities, funds distributed through the Opioid Abatement Trust Fund will provide further resources toward recovery and assist in bringing this epidemic to a halt. The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office will not let up on holding opioid manufacturers and distributors accountable,” state Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in the release.

The hope for funding from the Opioid Abatement Trust Fund in coming years “is that Tennessee communities begin to repair the damage that has happened and is still happening due to opioid addiction and that people are able to find new lives in recovery and achieve their full potential,” Marie Williams, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, said in the release.

Williams thanked Skrmetti and former state Attorney General Herbert Slattery and their staffs “because we know their efforts on this essential issue will help define how our state recovers from the opioid crisis.”

Tennessee’s Opioid Abatement Council was created by in 2021 by the state General Assembly to manage the disbursement of proceeds from lawsuits relating to opioids.

The Opioid Abatement Council “upholds the responsibility to ensure the disbursements of these funds go toward funding programs, strategies, expenditures, and other actions designed to prevent and address the misuse and abuse of opioid products and treat or mitigate opioid use or related disorders or other effects of the opioid epidemic,” according to the release.

To learn more about the Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council, visit the council website at tn.gov/behavioral-health/oac .

Article Source:

https://www.greenevillesun.com/news/local_news/greene-county-to-receive-over-333k-from-opioid-lawsuit-funds/article_37b49c74-b47d-11ed-a3ce-67849ec892fc.html