Yakima looks at how to use opioid lawsuit settlement money [Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash.]

Jul. 27—Preventing opioid abuse and addiction and treating those who are impaired by it are huge issues across Washington state. A recently announced lawsuit settlement funds can help Yakima and other communities address the problem.

The Yakima City Council took a first step toward using $1.3 million in opioid pharmacy and manufacturer settlement funds Tuesday, discussing how the money could be used in the near future.

One question is whether Yakima should combine its settlement money with a larger amount received by Yakima County to provide more funding for a prevention or treatment program.

"I'd like to see what we can do for our city residents here before we think about doing anything jointly," council member Patricia Byers said.

Council members Soneya Lund and Danny Herrera asked City Attorney Sara Watkins to check with county officials to see how they plan to use their settlement, which is about three times the size of Yakima's.

"I'm not necessarily sold on pooling our money with the county's ... I'd just like to see what our options are," Lund said. "I would like to see what the other cities (Grandview and Sunnyside) and the county are doing."

Herrera suggested the city invite nonprofits and others working to combat opioid use and addiction to meet with the council. This would be similar to the April 11 discussion the council hosted on homelessness.

City Manager Bob Harrison said city staff would look into hosting such a meeting in September for a City Council work session.

Lawsuit settlement background

In 2022 and 2023, the state attorney general's office settled multiple lawsuits with opioid manufacturers and distributors for damages caused to the state of Washington and its municipalities, due to the over prescription and over distribution of opioids to the public.

The settlements were part of national opioids settlements against manufacturers and distributors. The settling parties were Allergen, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Johnson & Johnson, Teva, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson.

Different settlement amounts and payment periods were agreed to depending on the size and population of the community, Watkins said.

Yakima will receive $1.3 million, payable over 17 years, said city finance director Jennifer Ferrer-Santa Ines. The city received $97,093.51 in December and is slated to receive payments of roughly $50,000 each July for the next 17 years.

Watkins noted that is about 0.6% of the state of Washington's settlement money, with Yakima County receiving 1.93% — about three times as much as the city ($4.1 million). Grandview ($114,080) and Sunnyside ($260,897) also received a direct allocation from the settlement.

Yakima could opt to use its settlement money to create a larger countywide program of prevention and treatment. Watkins said this would be similar to how communities in Benton and Franklin counties are using the settlement money.

Washington state jurisdictions that signed settlement agreements entered into a memorandum of understanding as to how the money would be spent, Watkins said. Basically, the city must use the funding under one of three broad categories: treatment, prevention, or other strategies such as education and training of first responders.

Two possible strategies

At Tuesday's meeting, City Prosecutor Cynthia Martinez presented council members with two possible proposals for use of the settlement funds.

Each would enhance the city's Community Diversion Program, which seeks to address the root causes of crimes such as drug use and addiction. Participants complete chemical dependency and mental health assessments and treatment, receive life skills training and complete community service, Martinez said.

She noted the Community Diversion Program was established in 2016 by a private citizen and has been funded by the city ever since. A total of 63 participants have successfully completed the program, and 77% of those remain crime-free.

Settlement funds could allow the city to make the program's part-time case manager a full-time position, especially considering the anticipated increase in participants as the city prosecutes drug possession and public use cases in municipal court, Martinez said.

She told council members the state Legislature-approved "Blake Fix" rules took effect a few days ago and there already are two defendants in the municipal court system.

Another option for settlement funds would be a grant program covering opioid use disorder treatments for those whose insurance does not cover it. This includes Community Diversion Program participants who are on Medicare, which does not cover mental health treatments.

Martinez said this would expand the availability of opioid use disorder treatments, including all forms of medication assisted treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"Depending on the financial situation of the defendant, which is typically not adequate, the lack of coverage makes it difficult for the individual to complete the CDP program," Martinez said. "It would be helpful to be able to grant participants the money for mental health treatment, which is almost always implicated with substance abuse issues."

Several community members spoke about the issue during public comment Tuesday.

Megan Tweedy of Yakima mentioned how her brother, Jeff, died of a fentanyl overdose in 2020 — a fatal path that began with his use of prescription pain pills. She urged the council to use the settlement money to prevent others from becoming addicted and to lessen the stigma of opioid use disorder.

Alicia Tobin, executive director of the Safe Yakima Valley nonprofit, said the settlement funding should be mostly focused on prevention efforts such as her organization's drug free coalition and youth mentoring program.

Tobin said 80% of crime is tied to substance use, and it is much less expensive and traumatic for the community to prevent drug use rather than to treat it after someone is addicted and committing crimes.

Contact Joel Donofrio at [email protected].

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