Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is reminding eligible municipalities to voluntarily participate in two historic opioid settlements, which would bring nearly $800 million to Michigan over 18 years.
The participation cutoff date for local governments to receive direct payments is January 2, 2022.
“The participation we’ve seen thus far is promising, but there are still dozens of eligible municipalities that have not yet completed registration,” Nessel said. “I urge all of our state’s eligible municipalities to register for direct payments. This money will bolster prevention and treatment efforts in our communities that have been hardest hit by the opioid crisis.”
Based on the settlement terms, there are 277 local units of government – called subdivisions in the settlement agreement – eligible to participate in Michigan.
Each of Michigan’s counties are part of that 277 total. Other municipalities are eligible if:
• The municipality is currently litigating against the defendants
• The municipality has a population of 10,000 people or more.
As of December 15, 92 eligible subdivisions had not yet initiated the registration process, including some counties. The Department will be contacting those individual subdivisions, the majority of which are eligible townships.
Additionally, there are currently 93 eligible subdivisions that have initiated but not yet completed the participation agreement process.
The deadline is January 2 to participate and receive direct payments. Eligible subdivisions can email AG-OpioidLitigation@michigan.gov for help with the process.
The state formally signed on to the proposed multibillion-dollar national settlements in August, which is with Johnson & Johnson and the three largest pharmaceutical distributors in the country: Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen.
The historic agreements were announced in July and were the result of ongoing efforts to hold these companies responsible for their roles in contributing to the opioid epidemic gripping this country.
Michigan stands to receive up to nearly $800 million over the life of the settlements, which is dependent in part on participation of local governments. Spending priority would be placed on treatment and prevention. Only the 1998 national tobacco settlement has involved more dollars than this proposed settlement.
Additional information on this historic settlement can be found on the department’s website. The direct URL is michigan.gov/AGOpioids.
State negotiations were led by Attorneys General Josh Stein (NC), Herbert Slatery (TN) and the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The agreement in principle was reached by all parties in October of 2019 and the parties have been working on the particulars of the settlement since then.
A national website has been created to provide additional information on the settlement at https://nationalopioidsettlement.com.
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