SC will get $300M-plus from national opioid settlement. Here are ways it might be spent
A South Carolina panel responsible for deciding how more than $300 million from a national opioid settlement will be spent plans to start meeting next month.
State medical experts and government leaders, including Gov. Henry McMaster and Attorney General Alan Wilson, released a guide Wednesday showing how local governments can spend the money stemming from thousands of civil lawsuits filed against opioid maker Johnson & Johnson and three large drug distributors, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson.
There are nine approved uses for the money that will eventually be sent to local governments. They include prevention programs and treatment for pregnant and postpartum women who use opioids.
Dr. Edward Simmer, the director of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, told reporters that the guide currently balances prevention and treatment “split 50/50.”
“Clearly, prevention is the most important thing because if we can prevent it, we don’t need the treatment,” Simmer said Wednesday at the State House. “On the other hand, we have thousands of people right now who need treatment.”
Over the next 18 years, South Carolina will receive more than $360 million from the national $26 billion opioid settlement. Part of the settlement will be used to pay for attorney fees.
Wilson said the state will receive more than $75 million from the settlement by the end of 2022.
McMaster described the settlement as “a great step forward” for South Carolina.
Led by the S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Services and the S.C. Institute of Medicine and Public Health, the “South Carolina’s Guide to Approved Uses for Investing Opioid Settlement Funds” document outlines recommendations for local officials on how to spend the settlement money in their respective areas.
The guide was developed with top addiction experts in the state, including medical professors from the University of South Carolina and Clemson University.
“We were honored to bring together a team of exceptional subject matter experts to help create this guide,” said Sara Goldsby, director of the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services. “And I say it often, we are very lucky to have these nationally known topic experts here in South Carolina.”
Nine approved uses to address opioid substance use are centered in the settlement guide.
Naloxone — a Food and Drug Administration-approved medication to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose — and other overdose-reversing drugs is one outlet for municipalities to spend their settlement cash. The approved use of the medication specifically encourages the settlement to be used to train first responders, schools and family members of opioid users on its usage.
The guide also suggests increasing the distribution of medications for opioid use disorders for those who are medically uninsured.
Other approved uses include expanding treatment of pregnant and postpartum women who use opioids, newborns who were exposed to opioids during pregnancy and incarcerated opioid users.
Prevention programs, such as community drug disposal programs, K-12 education on substance abuse and media campaigns to discourage opioid abuse, are also emphasized as potential uses.
The nine-person committee, led by Assistant Deputy Attorney General Jared Libet, will be in charge of approving financial requests from local governments. The committee is expected to begin meeting within the next month.
The settlement was finalized in late February. and became the second-largest multi-state agreement in U.S. history, after the Tobacco Master Settlement agreement.
Although the companies did not acknowledge their role in fueling the opioid crisis during the settlement, Wilson said the distributors will be required to report information about their opioid deliveries.
He added that Johnson & Johnson will “exit the opioid market” and be banned from lobbying for opioid-related causes.
An ‘epidemic’ in South Carolina
The opioid crisis has been described as “at an epidemic level” in the November South Carolina Opioid Emergency Response Plan, which outlines state action on opioid-related issues.
Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a 38.4% increase in overdose deaths between 2019 and 2020, primarily driven by opioid usage. More than 100,000 drug overdose deaths occurred between 2020 and 2021 in the U.S.
South Carolina had 1,400 opioid-related drug overdose deaths in 2020, according to a 2020 report from DHEC. Counties that experienced more than 50 opioid-related deaths in the same year included Aiken, Charleston, Greenville, Horry, Lexington, Richland, Spartanburg and York.
Officials said DHEC’s strategies to combat the opioid crisis in South Carolina are an ongoing effort.
The department is part of the larger South Carolina Opioid Emergency Response Team, which is tasked with addressing opioid abuse through prevention and surveillance.
Implementing opioid-related education for doctors, collecting overdose data and expanding first responders’ usage of naloxone have been some of the main practices the department has undertaken in recent years.
This story was originally published June 22, 2022 at 5:14 PM with the headline "SC will get $300M-plus from national opioid settlement. Here are ways it might be spent."
