Thread by @shayshinecastle

Next up: Even more $$ the city will (eventually) be getting, for lawsuits against pharma companies over the opioid epidemic.

No notes on this, but here's the presentation: documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocVie…

Kelly Velt from Boulder County is handling this one.

There will be 4 payouts from settlements; one is final, the other 3 are still being worked out.

Money will come to the state, then the county, and then to the city. But likely we'll work with both the state and county on programs, bc there is so much need for addiction services.

Velt: "We know the impacts of the opioid epidemic have been v localized. Nobody knows our communities better than our local gov't."

80% of funds will be distributed to local gov't
- 20% to local gov't
- 60% to regions (Boulder County is our region)

20% will go to the state, half of which will be for supporting infrastructure (technology, data and systems management, etc.)

Velt: We don't want to reinvent the wheel. We know where the gaps are. With community input, we can work out a plan to fix them.

What it can be used on is so broad, Velt says. We're looking at things that have been impacted by increased opioid use, and things that drove increased opioid use.

The one settlement that is done is the McKinsey settlement. $43K will go to Boulder County as an entity, and $270K will come to the Boulder region (of which the city is a part)

That's the smallest of the 4 settlements ($573M total in the U.S.) where the other 3 still in flex are $1B to $21B(!) over the next couple decades, so we'll get more $$ in the future.

Not all we need, and not necessarily all that soon, but it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, as my dad used to say.

Looks like the $300K BoCo will get will be dispersed next year.

Some service providers/orgs involved with drug addiction at multiple levels have already been surveyed in the state. The q was, if you had $100M, where would you put the $$.

41.3% to treatment and recovery
21.8% to prevention
21.7% to criminal justice (jail-based addiction treatment, post-release support)
14.2% to harm reduction (like needle exchanges or OD prevention such as Narcan)

Brockett: How much might we get from future settlements?
Velt: It's really unclear. These things are being worked out sometimes in confidence; we're not getting real-time updates.

Brockett: This is from and for opioid addiction, but we have substance use of all kinds in our community. Can we use this $$ for other addiction issues?

Yes, Velt says.

As long as we're within the space of substance use disorder and the challenges it creates (like housing and homelessness) we are OK, Velt says.

Weaver: Should the city expect about $43K out of this? (Since that's what the county as a gov't is getting) Is it population based?

Velt isn't sure. She'll check.

Weaver: Are cities as local gov't getting direct allocations just like the county got?

Yes, Velt says, they will. How the amounts are decided, idk.

Weaver: The city might want to turn our allocation over to the county, or we might want to do some of our own things in partnership with the county. The council needs to start thinking about that.

Velt: "A lot of the interventions we're talking about are going to span the entire region of Boulder County" bc we're so small.

Friend suggests that people with lived experience should be lifted up in the group that represent the region and make the final calls for $$ allocation.

"This is exciting work that can hopefully be transformative," Friend says.

That's all for this one.

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