Massive opioid settlement nets $39 million for Horry County, Myrtle Beach, Pee Dee region
A massive legal settlement between U.S. attorneys general and large distributors of opioids will bring more than $39 million to Horry County, Myrtle Beach and the rest of the Pee Dee region in coming years.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the $26 billion settlement with Cardinal Health, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Johnson & Johnson on Friday, as did AGs in other states.
The companies did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, but will take certain steps to slow the flow of opioids in the United States.
South Carolina will see between $300 million and $400 million total from the settlement over the next 18 years.
Robert Kittle, a spokesperson for Wilson, noted in a news release that the settlement with the distributors and Johnson & Johnson is the second largest multi-state settlement in U.S. history after the major tobacco settlement of the 1990s. That settlement sent $206 billion to states over 25 years.
In the Pee Dee region, Horry County will receive the largest settlement amount at $11.9 million.
Florence County will receive the second-highest amount, at $5 million.
Myrtle Beach will see $4.3 million.
The Sun News previously reported estimated settlement amounts for the Pee Dee region. The attorney general’s office provided concrete figures for the first time Friday.
The settlement amounts — which reflect the maximum amount a city or county might see — break down like this:
- Horry County could receive up to $11.89 million
- Florence County could receive up to $5.03 million
- Myrtle Beach could receive up to $4.35 million
- Darlington County could receive up to $3.86 million
- Georgetown County could receive up to $2.71 million
- Florence City could receive up to $2.3 million
- Chesterfield County could receive up to $2.15 million
- Marion County could receive up to $1.59 million
- Dillon County could receive up to $1.51 million
- North Myrtle Beach could receive up to $1.45 million
- Marlboro County could receive up to $1.11 million
- Conway could receive up to $660,000
- Georgetown City could receive up to $599,000
Kittle, in an email, noted the settlement amounts were “best-case scenario” figures.
South Carolina, for example, has to pass a law prohibiting future lawsuits against the companies in order to receive the maximum amount possible.
“If there were other suits after this settlement, the amount of money the state would get would be less.,” Kittle said. “So these numbers are not set in stone. It’s also important to stress that this money will be paid out over 18 years. This is not a big lump sum coming in all at once.”
According to the settlement agreement, the money will have to be spent on “approved abatements.”
Such abatements could include purchasing Naloxone, which can reverse opioid overdoses, as well as addiction treatment programs and other law enforcement expenses.
Myrtle Beach, for example, plans to use its share on its opioid outreach program, which is currently funded through state grants. The city contracts with the local organization New Directions to run the program, which directs those addicted to opioids to treatment services.
“We’ve got a really great program going and I hope this means we will continue to partner with the city of Myrtle Beach … to reduce the number of overdoses,” New Directions CEO Kathy Jenkins told The Sun News last month.
The funds can go to a variety of law enforcement uses, including 911 services, officers who interact with those using opioids, criminal justice programs that connect those who have overdosed with treatment and purchasing Naloxone for first-responders to carry.
Horry County and the Pee Dee region, like other places across the country, were hit hard by the opioid epidemic.
In its initial 2018 lawsuit against AmerisourceBergen, Horry County alleged the crisis led to an “opioid prescription rate of 110.7 per 100 persons, one of the highest in the state of South Carolina.”
The county also cited a statistic that 101 people died of opioid overdoses in 2016.
That figure climbed to 131 deaths as of 2019, the year the most recent figures are available.
At a budget meeting this week, Myrtle Beach officials noted that the number of overdoses in the city have continued to increase.
In 2017, the city recorded 124 “overdose incident” reports and 483 last year.
The Sun News previously detailed how the county was once home to a “pill mill” that distributed large quantities of Oxycontin and other opioids.
The three distribution companies, as part of the settlement, will create a “centralized independent clearinghouse” to provide state regulators with data and analysis of where opioids are going.
The companies must also take steps to slow their distribution of opioids, including halting and reporting “suspicious opioid orders.”
Johnson & Johnson, which manufactures and sells opioids, must stop selling the drugs, stop promoting opioid products, even through third parties, and must stop lobbying government leaders on issues related to opioids. The company must also share clinical trial data with the Yale University Open Data Access Project.
Money from the settlement will begin flowing to cities and counties sometime this spring, the attorney general’s office said.
“These settlements will provide much-needed financial resources which will help combat South Carolina’s opioid epidemic,” Wilson said in the news release. “My office looks forward to working with stakeholders around the state to ensure that these dollars have the greatest impact possible in each of our communities.”
