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Settlement

Use Funding to Help West Virginia

“We’re all down, one to go. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey was talking specifically about the years of ongoing lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies that helped fuel our region’s substance abuse epidemic.

This week, the state settled with Walgreens for $83 million over its role in the opioid crisis that has hit the Mountain State harder than any other. It is the latest in a series of lawsuits that has yielded more than $950 million in settlement money, with Kroger the last on the list. That trial is expected to begin in June.

Most of the pharmacies and distributors that have been sued seem to have put in place better controls (or eliminate predatory practices). Good. But the plague switched tactics. It threw on a disguise and blended right back in as fentanyl.

Perhaps the nonprofit West Virginia First Foundation, which will receive 72.5% of the money, and the cities and counties that signed on to the attorney general’s West Virginia First Memorandum of Understanding will be able to use that money to make some headway. But there is much work to do.

Foundation members and those making spending decisions at the local government level must bend over backward to get this right. It won’t be easy. The foundation must do the heavy lifting to ensure all communities benefit from these settlements.

A few years back, a group of experts said money from these settlements should be used on holistic prevention programs, evidence-based treatment options, harm reduction services and supply restriction efforts. All of that is easier said than done. But it seems as though an element is missing. Foundation members should consider whether to support education, workforce and economic development efforts that will bring good jobs and hope to our communities.

State House Speaker Roger Hanshaw was spot on when he said “There is no better cure for the ills our society faces than a good job.” If we don’t remember that, Morrisey’s work will be for naught.

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