Litchfield Park could receive $56K in opioid settlement money

The city of Litchfield Park has signed onto a plan that would allow for the transfer of up to $56,000 to the city as part of a landmark opioid settlement seven years in the making. 

A $26 billion dollar global settlement was reached following claims that drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three top opioid distributors willfully fueled an opioid epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people since the late 1990s, and addicted many more.  

Last year, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office asked Arizona municipalities to sign on to the One Arizona Plan, which would help with distribution of funding to all counties, cities and towns in the state. 

Under the plan, 44% of the settlement funds will go to the state and 56% would go to cities and towns that sign on to the agreement, based on the number of opioids that had been shipped to the area, the number of deaths and the number of people with opioid use disorder. 

The actual amount of money Litchfield Park will receive will be based on the number of other municipalities that sign on to the agreement, and it likely won’t be distributed immediately, but over years, said City Attorney Joseph Estes at a Wednesday city council meeting. 

The funds are restricted, meaning they can only be used for things that directly address opioid substance abuse, such as education, or the purchase of Narcan, for instance. 

Several council members and city staff at the Wednesday meeting expressed their desire to see the funds donated to nonprofits that deal with opioid use disorder and overdose prevention. 

Councilmember Ann Donahue asked the city attorney if the money could be donated for Narcan purchase by the Avondale Police Department, which serves the city of Litchfield Park. 

City Manager Matthew Williams chimed in that Avondale Police already recieve Narcan funding from the state but added he’d prefer to see the funds go toward organizations working to address the epidemic.

“I love the idea of giving it to a nonprofit if we can do that,” Williams said. 

Mayor Thomas Schoaf agreed, stating that he wants the funds to be spent in a way that has a meaningful impact on those impacted by the opioid epidemic.

“We just need to make sure we find...a creative way to use this money so it actually helps somebody as opposed to just doing something that...just checks a box,” Schoaf said.