County to offer grants to combat opioid addiction

The county is in the process of setting up protocols for issuing grants to local organizations involved in combating the opioid addiction crisis.

The funding for the grants comes from a large-scale class action lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies that were involved in supplying opioids. The county commissioners signed a resolution in 2021 to accept the statewide settlement agreement and receive the associated funds.

The OneWyo Opioid Settlement is part of a nationwide settlement and is eventually expected to net somewhere between $82,000 and $150,000 for this county. At this time, according to County Clerk Melissa Jones, just under $37,000 is available in the fund.

The class action lawsuit included all the pharmaceutical supply chain participants who contributed to the opioid epidemic, which in turn harmed the people and communities of the State of Wyoming.

The funding will not all come in at once, according to County Attorney Joe Baron, because the lawsuit involves numerous separate entities, each of which will pay over a different amount of time.

For instance, said Baron, he has heard that Walmart intends to pay in one lump sum, while others may pay over eight or 15 years. The process of planning ahead will allow the county to better understand what funding it has available and allocate it in the most effective way.

With the money now beginning to become available, the county must figure out how best to spend it for the benefit of the community. The commissioners are considering making $5000 available in grant funding each year, which will require organizations to submit annual applications.

“If they don’t show up, the money will stay in the pot and will just be available next year as this thing grows. It’s just something that will grow,” said Baron.

The grants are intended for agencies and organizations that are dealing with the effects of the opioid crisis and intend to take positive steps towards assisting the community.

As examples, Baron mentioned Crook County Prevention and the detention center. The first is actively engaged in educating the public about the dangers of various addictions, while the latter might use the funding for such things as providing assessments to see if an individual needs in-patient treatment or physical examinations at the hospital.

As both of these examples for the jail cost less than $200 per time, Baron suggested that the total budget for grants of that nature would be somewhere around $1000 per year.

Prevention Specialist Katie Allen spoke to the ways in which Public Health assists with the epidemic. For example, she said, nurses can be certified to provide intervention and referral to treatment for a person suffering opioid addiction.

While the certification itself is free, Allen suggested that the grant funding could be used to cover a nurse’s expenses and time.

Allen also mentioned a life skills training that she is working to provide to students between first and sixth grades. Evidence shows, she says, that working with kids at a younger age is the best time to introduce the life skills and ability to resist peer pressure.

“When they do get to those teenage years, they’ve already learned the basics so they’re making better decisions,” she said.

Other possibilities for the funding are targeted at older citizens, such as education and promotion for Public Health’s drug disposal program.

OneWyo Settlement

The OneWyo Opioid Settlement included any entity that engaged in the manufacturing, marketing, promotion, distribution or dispensing of opioids. Some of the companies involved in the national settlement agreement include Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, McKesson and – through a bankruptcy resolution – Purdue Pharma L.P.

The State of Wyoming, through the Attorney General and some local governments, engaged in investigation, litigation and settlement discussions seeking to hold those supply chain participants accountable for the damage they have caused in Wyoming.

The participants decided to jointly approach settlements, believing this would improve the likelihood of success and maximize the amount recovered. The class action lawsuit began in 2019 at the federal level and by 2021 had come down to the county level.

All funds recovered are to be divided proportionally. Local governments will receive 65% of the funds; as well as counties, this includes cities and towns with populations over 10,000.

The sum that Crook County is expected to receive represents 0.54% of the total allocated to local governments. The idea is that the money is allocated according to where the opioid problems exist within this state.

The funds must be used “in a present and forward-looking manner to actively abate and alleviate the impacts of the opioid crisis and co-occurring substance abuse in Wyoming,” according to the OneWyo Opioid Settlement MOU.

These are divided into categories such as prevention of over-prescribing opioids; addressing the needs of persons with opioid use disorder who are involved in the criminal justice system or are pregnant; educating first responders to deal with situations involving fentanyl or other drugs; funding opioid abatement research; prevention of overdose deaths; and reducing the stigma surrounding opioid addiction.