50% State Share
Where do these monies live?
Alabama’s 50% state share is held in the state’s Opioid Treatment and Abatement Fund.[1]
What can this share be spent on?
With limited exceptions,[2] this share must be spent on uses consistent with the national settlement agreements’ (non-exhaustive) Exhibit E.[3] The Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council’s eight priorities, which “align” with Exhibit E,[4] further identify a subset of its many interventions it thinks “would assist in changing the trajectory of the opioid crisis in Alabama.”[5]
Who ultimately decides how to spend this share (and how)?
Oversight Commission on Alabama Opioid Settlement Funds recommends, Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council guides, state legislature decides. The Alabama state legislature ultimately decides via appropriation how to spend funds from this share after consulting with the Oversight Commission on Alabama Opioid Settlement Funds (Commission) and Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council (Council).[6],[7]
The Commission, created in 2023, is specifically tasked to “develop a statewide plan for the investment and use of opioid settlement funds and review the expenditure of funds appropriated to agencies and entities.”[8]
The Council, created in 2017,[9] is generally responsible for assisting the governor in developing a statewide response to the overdose crisis and identifying spending priorities that reflect the state’s needs.[10]
Are supplantation uses prohibited for this share?
No, supplantation is discouraged but not prohibited. Like most states, Alabama does not explicitly prohibit supplantation uses of its opioid settlement funds. This means that the 50% state share may be spent in ways that replace (or “supplant”) – rather than supplement – existing resources.
However, in its annual reports, the Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council has described a “shared commitment to using abatement funds recovered from statewide opioid settlements to supplement and strengthen resources available to Alabama communities and families for substance use disorder prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery.”[11]
Can I see how this share has been spent?
No (neither public nor intrastate reporting required). Opioid settlement expenditures are not officially published in a centralized location for this share.
Visit OpioidSettlementTracker.com’s Expenditure Report Tracker for an updated collection of states’ and localities’ available expenditure reports.
What else should I know?
Unlike most states, Alabama chose not to participate in some of the national settlement agreements.[12] Pursuing individual settlement agreements with the companies involved in the opioid litigation means that Alabama’s opioid settlement scheme is not automatically subject to all the features (and protections) of the “national” settlement agreements’ opioid remediation-related terms. For example, Alabama’s McKesson and Janssen settlement agreements do not specify any amount that must be used exclusively towards forward-looking abatement strategies.[13]
Citations
See 2024 AL House Bill 479 (appropriating settlement funds from the “Opioid Treatment and Abatement Fund”). But see Alabama Attorney General Marshall Finalizes $220 Million Settlement with Two Opioid Distributors. Alabama Attorney General Office press release. March 4, 2024. Accessed August 6, 2024 (“The State’s share of the settlement funds will be deposited directly into the State’s General Fund”). ↑
See, e.g., McKesson Special Master Report (describing special master fees and attorneys’ fees). ↑
See 2022 Annual Report. Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council. December 31, 2022 (describing Exhibit E’s “core strategies” list under “Approved State Use of Abatement Funds” and stating that “[t]he agreement reached by the State of Alabama with various parties restricts the use of any settlement funds to abatement strategies only. The priorities recommended by the Council align with the approved strategies”). Note that the state’s Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) settlement includes its own approved use exhibit with a non-exhaustive list of opioid remediation strategies that is similar but not identical to the national settlement agreements’ Exhibit E. The Janssen approved uses exhibit’s list of opioid remediation strategies are grouped into three categories: Opioid Community Innovation & Recovery (e.g., treatment, prevention, and harm reduction), Opioid Statewide Innovation & Recovery (e.g., resources for dashboards and stigma reduction training), and Opioid Recovery Sustainability (e.g., funding for child and family supports and syringe service programs). Johnson & Johnson Sign-On Exhibit A. ↑
See 2022 Annual Report. Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council. December 31, 2022 (“Approved State Use of Abatement Funds”). See also 2023 Annual Report. Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council. December 31, 2023 (“The Council supports ongoing recommendations as outlined in the previous year’s report,” which are “in keeping with the State Opioid Plan” established by the Oversight Commission on Alabama Opioid Settlement Funds). ↑
Id. See also Opioid Bankruptcy Case Allocation Agreement Exhibit A (describing a state-specific abatement plan with “three main components” to “complement … all other state and local government opioid plans”). ↑
See, e.g., 2024 AL House Bill 479, 2023 AL House Bill 465. ↑
See 2023 Annual Report. Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council. December 31, 2023 (“The Council looks forward to continued collaboration with the Oversight Commission on Alabama Opioid Settlement Funds providing lawmakers with the information they need to make data-driven and impactful decisions, based on guidance found in the 2022 Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council Report to the Governor.”) ↑
See Alabama Attorney General Marshall Finalizes $220 Million Settlement with Two Opioid Distributors. Alabama Attorney General Office press release. March 4, 2024 (“As the Alabama Legislature works to determine the best uses of this funding, appropriators will have the benefit of reviewing two-and-a-half years of diligent work by the Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council to determine the State’s greatest needs”). ↑
Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council, 2023 Annual Report and 2022 Annual Report. ↑
See OpioidSettlementTracker.com’s “Global Settlement Tracker.” ↑
See Section V.D.1 of the Distributor and Janssen agreements (requiring states to devote 70% of their opioid settlements to future opioid remediation). ↑
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