The Madison County Mental Health Board is accepting applications for grant proposals from the $3.7 million opioid settlement in an effort to combat the opioid epidemic.
The grant opportunities are available to non-profit and local government providers. Applications will be accepted until March 17.
“This is a part of monies that are flowing from settlements with big drug companies,” Mental Health Board Director Deborah Humphrey said.
Madison County was awarded an estimated $3.7 million in November 2022 as part of a settlement on behalf of local governments across the country with opioid distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, and opioid manufacturer Janssen.
The settlement will be received in increments over a period of several years, through 2038 for the distributors and 2031 for Janssen.
Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine said the county received its first two installments from the distributors’ settlement in October 2022, totaling $243,323. Janssen payments are set to begin this year.
“Pursuant to the settlement agreements, Madison County is obligated to use the settlement funds to support opioid remediation programs in the community,” Haine said.
According to a press release, the county must outline how it will spend its share of the settlement money each year. The terms of the settlement allow the funds to be used for a variety of programs supporting opioid remediation, including training for first responders, youth education, treatment and support services, support for those involved in the criminal justice system and research.
The county must provide documentation to the Illinois Attorney General showing how the funds are being used to support opioid remediation programs.
“This funding will bring an opportunity to address and alleviate some of the effects Madison County has experienced with this ongoing opioid epidemic,” Humphrey said.
Funding applications can be found on the Mental Health Board website under the “news” section.
In a letter penned to the Madison County Board, Haine wrote that the settlement “is the result of two nationwide settlement agreements executed on July 21, 2021, that resolved all opioid litigation brought by state and local governments against the three largest drug distributors, McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen, and one manufacturer, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.”
The distributors’ nationwide settlement totaled $21 billion. Janssen’s nationwide settlement totaled $5 billion.
Illinois is set to receive $760 million from the two settlements, which is then divided into multiple funds. Madison County is set to receive 1.9514 percent of that amount, which is approximately $3,702,939.
“Though Madison County’s total percentage of the overall settlement is fixed, there are many variables that appear to modify the amounts of each yearly payment and could change the total amount,” Haine wrote in his letter to the County Board.
He included an unofficial analysis from the attorneys coordinating the settlement for the first three years to aid the County Board in predicting what funds might be available for the first three years.
Other opioid claims
Madison and St. Clair Counties also filed opioid lawsuits against Mallinckrodt and McKinsey & Company.
In the suit against McKinsey, Madison County alleges civil conspiracy for its contribution to the opioid crisis through OxyContin marketing techniques.
“Madison County seeks to hold McKinsey accountable for its role in coldly wrecking so many lives through opioid over-prescription and addiction,” Haine stated. “McKinsey designed and implemented the strategies that lead to a ‘turbocharge’ of opioid prescriptions even at the height of the opioid epidemic. McKinsey’s partners working on opioid issues even suggested destroying evidence relating to its work. Now McKinsey needs to pay. It won’t bring people back or repair families, but it will be some measure of justice. And any funds recovered can then be put towards local drug mitigation programs and to combat the scourge of mental health that is so related to addiction in the first place.”
The claims against Mallinckrodt is being determined through the bankruptcy process.
Haine appointed Ann Callis, a partner at Holland Law Firm, to handle the suits with a team of private lawyers.