WARREN — Trumbull County has been awarded $344.4 million over 15 years, the result of a major opioid litigation settlement.

“For years, the dedicated front-line workers of Trumbull County have fought to address the harms of the opioid crisis,” said County Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa. “Trumbull County has been fighting this epidemic with one hand tied behind its back in a sense. Now we have the resources necessary to attack this problem in multiple different ways.”

Cantalamessa said Lake County also will receive $306.2 million over the same period as part of a federal lawsuit the two counties had filed against the major pharmacy chains in the area.

Commissioner Frank Fuda said $22 million per year can be spent fighting this epidemic for 15 years. He said one of the major challenges has been combating this epidemic, which has killed hundreds through the years.

“The news today means that we will soon have the long-awaited resources necessary to extend aid to properly address the harms caused by this devastating epidemic. We hope this will signal the beginning of the long road to recovery for the people of Trumbull County,” Cantalamessa said.

The settlements were reached earlier this summer between Trumbull County and retail pharmacies that distributed highly addictive opioid drugs to local residents.

Jurors in the civil case filed by Lake and Trumbull counties had voted unanimously to hold Walmart, CVS and Walgreens responsible for contributing to the opioid epidemic.

“Amazing,” Cantalamessa said. “It’s going to go a long way toward helping us combat the epidemic now and into the future.”

ABATEMENT STRATEGY

April J. Caraway, executive director of the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board who testified during last year’s federal trial, said Wednesday that she didn’t get the chance yet to read the entire court finding, but the order describes how the counties can spend the dollars to help mitigate the opiate epidemic.

“Following the specific abatement strategy that was produced at the trial will lead to our community recovering from this horrible opiate epidemic,” Caraway said. “We have lost thousands of Trumbull County lives to the opiate crisis, and families will be forever changed because of it. No amount of funding will bring back our friends and family members or ease the grief of these lost lives.”

Caraway said if “we follow the abatement plan and institute robust prevention programs, treatment for individuals regardless of their ability to pay; education and employment programs; and so many other things included in the plan — we can ensure that people who struggle with addiction can recover, and our young people won’t have access to the drugs that caused this crisis.”

JUDGE’S ORDER

U.S. Judge Dan Polster of the Northern Ohio District Court ordered CVS, Walgreens and Walmart to pay $650 million over 15 years to fund abatement plans in the two counties following a jury decision that found the pharmacy chains liable for creating a public nuisance and fueling the opioid epidemic.

Many lawyers got involved.

National Prescription Opiate Litigation MDL plaintiffs’ executive committee co-leads Jayne Conroy of Simmons Hanly Conroy; Paul T. Farrell Jr. of Farrell & Fuller Law LLC; Joe Rice of Motley Rice LLC; as well as the trial co-leads on behalf of Lake County and Trumbull County, Mark Lanier of The Lanier Law Firm, Peter H. Weinberger of Spangenberg Shibley & Liber LLP, and Frank L. Gallucci III of Plevin & Gallucci Co. issued a statement:

“Holding CVS, Walgreens and Walmart accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic has been years in the making. First, they were found liable by a jury to have fueled a public nuisance caused by dispensing a staggering influx of pills into the local community, and now, the court has ordered them to pay to help combat the public health crisis they helped create. Today’s decision means that the Lake County and Trumbull County communities will soon receive the long overdue recovery funds they need to address the effects of the opioid epidemic locally.”

Walmart and Walgreens both said they will appeal the ruling. CVS did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Walmart stated the counties’ attorneys “sued Walmart in search of deep pockets, and this judgment follows a trial that was engineered to favor the plaintiffs’ attorneys and was riddled with remarkable legal and factual mistakes. We will appeal.”

Walgreens spokesperson Fraser Engerman said: “The facts and the law did not support the jury verdict last fall, and they do not support the court’s decision now. The court committed significant legal errors in allowing the case to go before a jury on a flawed legal theory that is inconsistent with Ohio law and compounded those errors in reaching its ruling regarding damages.”

Litigation involving Rite Aid and Giant Eagle was settled before the verdict.

RECOMMENDATIONS

According to the judge’s orders, Caraway said, the defendants also will have to put in measures to ensure that people aren’t getting more medication than they should or diverting the opiates.

“This combined with other abatement efforts such as law enforcement interdiction and charging the drug dealers will also help get these drugs off of our streets so that a new generation of our community doesn’t fall prey to this highly addictive product,” Caraway said.

Trumbull County commissioners have voted unanimously to create a nine-person board that will make recommendations on spending the county’s multi-million dollar awards.

Fuda said this committee “can guide us” through on how to wisely spend the money.

“The drug problem is probably one of the biggest problems we have to deal with,” Fuda said.

“The funds will be used to implement the county’s opioid abatement strategy. This is a non-negotiable requirement. The court recommended we have an administrator ensure the funds are compliantly used,” commissioner Niki Frenchko said. “My initiative for the panel was approved by our board three will be from the law/legal sector who work with opioid affected population, three who are licensed in working with this group and three who are in recovery or families who have been impacted by addiction.”

The money could be spent on everything “from new mental health and rehab programs, education in our schools, medical services that will help treat victims,” Cantalamessa said. “New rehab centers can be constructed and operated by trained and certified mental health and addiction specialists,” he said.

As far as dealing with the drug problem on the streets, Cantalamessa said more money now can be spent on strengthening drug court dockets, and tougher prosecutions for drug traffickers.

“We can beef up the area drug task forces,” he said. “We hope this will signal the beginning of the long road to recovery for the people of Trumbull County.”

Both Fuda and Cantalamessa noted this effort first came about by Jim Misocky of the prosecutor’s office, and is something Cantalamessa presented to the board in 2018.

“We were one of the first and were selected along with Lake County as a bellwether case. (It’s) something I’m very passionate about, and I feel like we really did something amazing — and I’m just ecstatic,” Cantalamessa said.

Kevin Roy, chief public policy officer at Shatterproof, an organization that advocates for solutions to addiction, said in November the verdict could lead pharmacies to follow the path of major distribution companies and some drugmakers that have reached nationwide settlements of opioid cases worth billions. So far, no pharmacy has reached a nationwide settlement.

MORE FUNDS TO COME

The money received from this litigation is just one stream of funding Trumbull County is receiving to help it cope with the epidemic.

On July 15, the state announced Ohio municipalities would start to see the first round of payments roll in from the OneOhio National Opioid Settlement. Municipalities throughout the Mahoning Valley received $525,200 out of the $8.6 million distributed across the state.

Through this settlement, Trumbull County received $175,000, not including $63,900 received by municipalities thoughout the county.

This money can be used to expand the availability of treatment for individuals affected by substance-use disorders, develop and enact substance-use prevention strategies, provide substance-use avoidance and awareness education, decrease the oversupply of opioids and support existing addiction services.

Additional funding also will be available through the OneOhio Recovery Foundation. The foundation is divided into 19 regions. Mahoning and Trumbull counties make up Region 7. Columbiana County is in Region 11.

A 29-member board will decide which localities should receive further funding.

This Ohio lawsuit was filed in 2017 by then-Attorney General Mike DeWine. Of Ohio’s 88 counties, 73 took part, which encompasses about 85 percent of the state’s population.

This is the first round of payments that will continue for the next 18 years. According to the lawsuit, Trumbull and Mahoning counties will receive about $3 million each over this time.

Staff writers Guy Vogrin, Emily Scott and Tom Wills contributed to this story, as did the Associated Press.

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