Christopher Julian’s opioid journey is acquainted to many Individuals.
He was prescribed painkillers as a young person for a sequence of sports activities accidents. He stated the physician by no means warned him they might be addictive. Julian didn’t study that truth till years later, when he was minimize off and started struggling withdrawal signs. At that time, he began siphoning capsules from members of the family and shopping for them from others in his southern Maine group.
After his brother died of mind most cancers in 2011, Julian used opioids to deal with greater than bodily ache.
He stole to help his dependancy, cycled out and in of jail and remedy, and overdosed 10 occasions, he stated. His mom as soon as gave him CPR on their lavatory ground.
Life was “hell on Earth,” stated Julian, now 43 and in long-term restoration.
Like tens of hundreds of others who’ve suffered equally, Julian filed claims for compensation from pharmaceutical firms accused of fueling the opioid disaster.
Earlier this yr, he obtained his first payout: $324.58.
That’s sufficient to fill his automobile with gasoline about eight occasions or pay a few tenth of the lease for an condo he shares together with his fiancee and two youngsters.
In the meantime, Maine’s Cumberland County, the place Julian lives, has obtained greater than $700,000 in opioid settlement cash and expects almost $1.6 million extra within the coming years, in response to a newly up to date database from KFF Well being Information. Jurisdictions all through his state have obtained greater than $68 million up to now, and governments nationwide have raked in upward of $10 billion, the database reveals.
That discrepancy between people’ and governments’ compensations highlights a way of injustice felt by individuals straight affected by the disaster who say their struggling is the rationale that governments secured these settlements.
Opioid settlements with firms like Purdue Pharma, Walmart, and Johnson & Johnson have led to headline-grabbing multibillion-dollar payouts, however many of the windfall is flowing to state and native governments, not on to victims of the disaster.
Solely a handful of firms — people who filed for chapter, together with Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt, Endo, and Ceremony Assist — have put aside payouts for people. To qualify, individuals will need to have filed claims inside a sure window and offered paperwork proving they have been prescribed painkillers from that firm. Even then, many victims will obtain just some thousand {dollars}, attorneys and advocates estimate. Most of those firms haven’t began paying but, so victims may need to attend months or years extra earlier than seeing the money.
In distinction, state and native governments have already obtained settlement cash. To grasp the scale of these payouts, KFF Well being Information in January downloaded knowledge from BrownGreer, the court-appointed agency administering many nationwide opioid settlements, and used it to replace a searchable database that permits customers to find out how a lot their metropolis, county, or state has obtained or expects to obtain every year.
Governments are receiving that cash as a result of attorneys basic argued that their states’ public security, well being, and social service techniques have been harmed by the opioid disaster. Jurisdictions are speculated to spend settlement cash on dependancy remedy, restoration, and prevention applications. However many affected people and households say governments have failed to stick to that mission.
“On the very minimal, they may spend these {dollars} proper to forestall the longer term lack of life,” stated Ryan Hampton, a nationwide restoration advocate and former co-chair of a committee within the Purdue Pharma chapter case, the place he represented victims. “That’s the reverse of what we’ve seen up to now.”
In Pennsylvania, a bunch of bereaved members of the family raised comparable issues to Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who finalized opioid settlements when he was legal professional basic.
“As an alternative of directing funds towards evidence-based options, you and your administration have allowed counties to divert these assets into legislation enforcement, ineffective applications, and initiatives that already produce other funding streams accessible — disrespecting each our households and the lives misplaced,” they wrote in a letter dated Feb. 14. “In the meantime, bereaved households — a lot of whom have misplaced every part — don’t have any monetary reduction.”
‘Governments Have been Manner Extra Highly effective’
To make certain, many governments have spent hundreds of thousands of settlement {dollars} on remedy applications, restoration helps, distribution of overdose reversal medicines, and different efforts. Some officers answerable for the cash say these providers, which attain many residents, can have a higher impression than particular person payouts.
Will Simons, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania governor, stated in a press release that the Shapiro administration has invested almost $90 million of settlement funds into remedy, restoration, hurt discount, and prevention initiatives, together with prevention applications for teens, a drug and alcohol name heart, and mortgage compensation applications geared toward retaining employees within the dependancy remedy and restoration subject.
Most of the awarded organizations “help households who’ve misplaced family members to this disaster, offering counseling and different household helps,” Simons stated.
Just a few jurisdictions have created pretty modest funds directed at people, similar to one in Boston to assist households who’ve misplaced family members to dependancy, and a fund in Alabama for grandparents having to lift youngsters due to parental substance use.
However nationwide, there’s little that resembles the widespread money funds that many advocates, like Hampton, initially envisioned.
Within the mid-2010s, Hampton stated, he and different advocates thought-about submitting class motion lawsuits in opposition to pharmaceutical firms however realized they didn’t have the assets.
Just a few years later, when state attorneys basic started pursuing circumstances in opposition to these firms, victims have been thrilled, pondering they’d lastly get compensation alongside their governments. Hampton and different advocates held rallies, shared their tales publicly, and galvanized help for the states’ lawsuits.
In 2019, when Hampton turned co-chair of the Official Committee of Unsecured Collectors in Purdue Pharma’s chapter and arrived on the negotiating desk with state attorneys basic and different entities, he thought “everyone was there to tackle the large unhealthy pharmaceutical firm and to place victims’ pursuits first,” he stated. However because the negotiation proceeded amongst numerous collectors vying for the corporate’s belongings, he stated, “governments have been far more highly effective than victims and believed that they have been extra harmed than victims by way of price.”
Particulars of the Purdue settlement are nonetheless being finalized, and funds are unlikely to start out till subsequent yr, however estimates counsel state and native governments will obtain the lion’s share, whereas greater than 100,000 victims will cut up a fraction of the chapter payout.
Mallinckrodt, a producer of generic opioids, is the one firm that had begun paying victims as of early 2025, stated Frank Younes, a companion on the Nebraska-based legislation agency Excessive & Younes, which is representing private damage claimants in a number of opioid bankruptcies.
After paying roughly 25% in administrative charges to the nationwide belief overseeing the chapter and an extra 40% in legal professional charges, a few of his shoppers have obtained between $400 and $700, Younes stated.
He expects payouts from two different firms — Endo and Ceremony Assist — “can be even decrease.”
However many victims gained’t obtain something. Some didn’t know they may file claims till it was too late. Others struggled to acquire medical data from shuttered medical doctors’ workplaces or pharmacies that didn’t retain older paperwork.
Out of almost 20,000 individuals who contacted Younes’ agency to take part within the numerous opioid bankruptcies, he stated, solely about 3,500 have been in a position to file.
‘Do One thing for These Households’
John McNerney was informed his Purdue Pharma declare didn’t qualify, as a result of he hadn’t been prescribed sufficient OxyContin to fulfill the edge. He submitted claims for Mallinckrodt and Endo as a substitute.
McNerney, 60, who lives in Boca Raton, Florida, stated he suffered a spinal damage a long time in the past from a fall throughout a plumbing restore. For years afterward, he was prescribed numerous painkillers. As soon as his medical doctors minimize him off, he started utilizing capsules a pal purchased off the road. McNerney spent about $30,000 on rehabs earlier than he entered long-term restoration.
Now when he sees governments spending settlement cash on police vehicles or library books about dependancy “as a substitute of placing 100% of it into rehab,” he stated, “it actually bothers the heck out of me.”
“I haven’t obtained a nickel,” he stated.
In Ohio, a bunch of affected households have been equally pissed off that cash wasn’t reaching them or the locations the place they thought it was wanted most.
The households teamed up with native nonprofits to submit grant purposes to the OneOhio Restoration Basis, which controls many of the state’s opioid settlement funds. They requested for a number of million {dollars} to place towards household help teams, coaching for members of the family who soak up youngsters whose dad and mom have substance use problems, and emergency money help for households to purchase cribs or faculty provides and canopy funeral prices.
Jackie Lewis, a member of the group, stated that when her 34-year-old son, Shaun, died of an overdose, she needed to pay his funeral prices by bank card. She has filed a declare within the opioid bankruptcies however hasn’t obtained any cash but.
“Too many households didn’t have a bank card to try this with,” Lewis stated. “There are households I’ve talked to that couldn’t do flowers. Some needed to do a cremation as a substitute of a conventional funeral.”
Her group didn’t obtain funding within the first spherical of grants from the OneOhio Restoration Basis.
Connie Luck, a spokesperson for the muse, stated the authorized paperwork that established the muse don’t enable direct funds to people affected by the disaster. The inspiration has awarded over $45 million to 245 initiatives all through the state, together with dozens that present household help providers like youngster care and rental help.
“We deeply empathize with those that have misplaced family members to the opioid epidemic — their ache is actual, and it fuels the Basis’s mission to finish this disaster and forestall it from taking place once more,” Luck stated in a press release.
In Maine, Julian has made peace together with his $325 payout, deciding to think about it a shock bonus slightly than compensation for his years of struggling.
However he hopes governments will use their extra substantial sums to offer actual assist — meals and rental help for individuals in restoration and extra remedy beds so nobody has to attend six months to enter rehab as he as soon as did.
“They’re getting hundreds of thousands of {dollars},” stated Julian, who has misplaced quite a few shut pals to overdose. “They may do one thing for these households which have suffered nice losses.”
KFF Well being Information knowledge editor Holly Okay. Hacker contributed to this text.
Methodology
For greater than two years, KFF Well being Information has been monitoring how state and native governments use — and misuse — billions of {dollars} in opioid settlement funds. This database marks our third replace of knowledge displaying how a lot cash state and native governments have obtained via nationwide settlements with firms that made or distributed prescription painkillers.
BrownGreer, the court-appointed agency administering many nationwide opioid settlements, tracks how a lot cash it has delivered to numerous state and native governments, in addition to how a lot is allotted to these jurisdictions for future years. It initially stored this info personal.
In 2023, KFF Well being Information negotiated to acquire that info and made it public for the primary time. 5 months later, BrownGreer started posting up to date variations of the knowledge on a public web site.
Final yr, KFF Well being Information downloaded BrownGreer’s knowledge on payouts from pharmaceutical distributors AmerisourceBergen (now known as Cencora), Cardinal Well being, and McKesson, in addition to opioid producer Janssen (now often known as Johnson & Johnson Modern Drugs), and used the state-by-state spreadsheets with separate entries for every settling firm to create a searchable database.
This yr, KFF Well being Information has up to date that database with new knowledge from BrownGreer, together with payouts from opioid producers Allergan and Teva, in addition to CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart pharmacies.
KFF Well being Information downloaded knowledge from BrownGreer’s web site between Jan. 20 and 24, 2025, regarding payouts from all firms. Customers can use the database to find out the whole greenback quantity their metropolis, county, or state has obtained or expects to obtain every year.
Though that is essentially the most complete knowledge accessible at a nationwide scale, it offers only a snapshot of all opioid settlement payouts. Different settlements, together with with OxyContin producer Purdue Pharma, are nonetheless pending. This knowledge doesn’t replicate further settlements that some state and native governments have entered into past the nationwide offers, such because the settlement between Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio and regional grocery store chain Meijer. As such, this database undercounts the quantity of opioid settlement cash most locations have obtained and can obtain.
Fee particulars for some states are usually not accessible, as a result of these states weren’t a part of nationwide settlement agreements, had distinctive settlement phrases, or opted to not have their funds distributed by way of BrownGreer. Just a few examples:
• West Virginia declined to hitch a number of nationwide settlements and as a substitute reached particular person settlements with many of those firms.• Texas and Nevada have been paid in full by Janssen exterior the nationwide settlement, so their payout knowledge displays funds solely from different firms with which they entered nationwide settlements.• Florida, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania, amongst others, opted to obtain a lump-sum fee by way of BrownGreer then distribute the cash to localities themselves.
BrownGreer reveals that a number of states obtained a few of their anticipated 2027 fee from the distributors (AmerisourceBergen — now known as Cencora — Cardinal Well being, and McKesson) early in 2024. Nonetheless, for 3 states — Colorado, Michigan, and Washington — BrownGreer doesn’t present knowledge on how a lot of this prepayment went to every locality. As such, locality funds in these states could also be undercounted for 2024 and overcounted for 2027.
For Oregon, BrownGreer reveals 2024 funds from Walmart as absolutely paid in its statewide knowledge however lists some August 2024 funds for localities as “projected.” For the reason that knowledge was downloaded nicely previous that August 2024 date, we’ve got included these “projected” quantities within the 2024 paid whole for Oregon localities. No different states had this discrepancy.
