BALTIMORE, MD—Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh has announced that all counties and municipalities participating in settlements with the former opioids manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, and opioid distributors, McKesson, Cardinal Health, and Amerisource Bergen will begin receiving their first payments in the coming weeks.
Under the settlement agreements and a State-Subdivision Agreement Attorney General Frosh reached with Maryland’s 58 participating subdivisions, the State and its subdivisions will receive over $60 million in 2022 out of a projected total of more than $395 million over 18 years. The funds will be used to address and abate the opioid crisis throughout the State.
“Money alone will not heal the wounds Marylanders have suffered from the opioid epidemic,” Attorney General Frosh said, “but these funds will help us prevent more addiction and death. We appreciate the cooperation and hard work that have brought us to this point. I am proud of the work the State and its subdivisions have done in holding wrongdoers accountable and securing this relief for the people of Maryland.”
The Attorney General’s formal certification of payment amounts will set in motion a process that is expected to result in the distribution by the end of December of over $13.5 million in direct payments to subdivision abatement funds. Nearly $47 million will also be distributed to the Maryland Opioids Restitution Fund established by the Maryland General Assembly in 2019 to fund opioids abatement programs throughout Maryland.
All told, nine of the State’s 23 counties are expected to receive total grants or direct payments ranging from $1.3 million to $7.8 million, while smaller counties and municipalities will collectively receive millions more. Attorney General Frosh set forth the distribution process and the certified, final payment amounts to local jurisdictions in a letter and worksheet sent to all participating subdivisions.
Frosh thanked his staff, members of the General Assembly, State and local officials, and the Maryland Association of Counties and Maryland Municipal League for their collective efforts in achieving this relief for Marylanders.
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