The Albany council, unintentionally caught with grim expressions, during an early part of Wednesday’s meeting.
Albany is one of 88 Oregon cities and counties that will share in the gusher of money that will spring from the national settlement of lawsuits over what is usually called the “opioid crisis.”
City Attorney Sean Kidd briefed the council on Wednesday night, and the council voted 5-0 (Stacey Bartholomew wasn’t there) to accept the deal by the Jan. 2 deadline.
Albany’s share amounts to a little over $2 million to be paid out over the next 18 years. The city will receive more than $100,000 a year in unexpected cash that, according to the settlement, has to be spent on things related to abuse of opioid drugs.
Just how to spend it will be decided later. It’s reasonable to expect that the cash will bolster local efforts to help the homeless, especially those with addiction problems.
Linn County stands to receive its own share, or $3.2 million over 18 years, Kidd told the council.
The money is to be paid by Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical company, and three distribution companies. If I heard him right, Kidd said the total settlement is for $21 billion. The published accounts I looked up put the total at $26 billion.
Oregon’s share is $329-$330 million. Of that, the state is to receive 45 percent, and 88 cities and counties the other 55 percent. Albany apparently joined the litigation against the drug companies last summer, although if there was any public mention of this, I missed it.
The briefing was in an executive session, but Kidd and City Manager Peter Troedsson said there was no reason to keep the details confidential. They released reporters (me and the Democrat-Herald) from the obligation to stay mum about what we heard in the executive session.
As for the opioid crisis, I’ve read sad stories about people who became addicted to painkillers and ruined their lives, or took an overdose and died. As for me, I was hugely grateful on the two or tree occasions when my dentist prescribed something powerful enough to prevent serious pain after he yanked out a troublesome tooth.
And I hope powerful painkillers will still be available when people need them, despite lawsuits and giant settlements like this. (hh)
This was a manufactured crisis. Not that some people didn’t get addicted or use the drugs irresponsibly but this was largely political, as so many things are now. Our system is hosed.
Yes, this crisis was absolutely manufactured by the producers of the drugs – with the intention of getting folks addicted. It worked…
“Manufactured by the producers”?
Really?
This only makes sense if you believe that people DO NOT have free will and cannot take responsibility for individual choices and consequences.
Such a belief is the primary cause of the problem. Shame on you, Ray.
Read much? Those opioids are being prescibed (& pushed by doctors at the behest of the mfg./producers) to get you hooked. Your “choice” at that point is non-existent. You’re in lalaland to believe otherwise…
“Prescribed … to get you hooked.” Really?
In the ideal world of Ayn Rand, “responsibility for individual choices and consequences” is 100%.
In the real world of prescription opioids and marginally-competent human beings, responsibility is shared by those who misuse their power and wealth to make huge profits.
“””Purdue Pharma … [agreed] to plead guilty to three criminal charges and pay $8bn in fines and damages. The company admitted to bribing doctors to unnecessarily prescribe OxyContin and to lying to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) about controls on sales of the painkiller. It also paid illegal kickbacks to a health records company to promote opioid prescribing to physicians.”””
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/22/purdue-pharma-opioids-epidemic-guilty-plea-analysis
“Free will” is exercised to a greater or lesser extent depending on the life circumstances of the individual. Certainly, no one in this fiasco exercised more “free will” than the drug makers.
Oregon wants to be California, so Albany should follow their neighbor’s lead and spend the settlement money on a public facility that provides users a safe space to inject drugs under supervision.
It’s called “harm reduction.” As the linked article states, “All carrot and no stick.”
One part of the program teaches users how to inject themselves safely to avoid overdoses and infections. Admirable.
I’m thinking Albany could use settlement money plus free CARA money to buy a quaint downtown building for this purpose.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-23/harm-reduction-california-could-allow-drug-use-at-supervised-sites
The best argument for injection-drug harm reduction is the same best argument for mandatory Covid-19 vaccination with only medical exemptions. In both cases it’s about infectious disease affecting everyone, not just the individual who acts stupidly.
In the case of Covid, every unvaccinated person is a bigger threat than a vaccinated person to everyone around them. Ever-more infectious variants (assured by evolution) mean that it will take increasingly draconian efforts to end the pandemic and its economic affects on everyone. Never mind the remaining million unvaccinated people who will die; I only care about the rest of us.
In the case of drug injection as it exists in the real world of prohibition, stigma, and poverty, diseases like hepatitis and AIDS are spread by other means than just dirty needles, and therefore enter the wider community. If conservatives don’t care about the lives of people who have made bad choices, that’s fine. They should care about the rest of us.
Wow! Conservatives are the cause of all the world’s problems except where they are the worst in Democratic cities like Portland which constitute the majority of the population in the US and world wide. Explain to me Howling why liberals aren’t the drug problem as I’ve used opiod’s with no problems. If the libs wanted to do something they would take Oregon’s share of $300,00,000 and build free treatment centers for anybody wanting to rid themselves of their addiction but they will pee the money way on the bureaucracy..
“””Conservatives are the cause of all the world’s problems …”””
I never said that.
“””If the libs wanted to do something they would take Oregon’s share of $300,00,000 and build free treatment centers for anybody wanting to rid themselves of their addiction but they will pee the money way on the bureaucracy..”””
Good idea, but without the self-fulfilling prophecy of “they will pee the money …”
“””Explain to me Howling why liberals aren’t the drug problem …”””
I would explain if I could understand your point.
Howling ,
Your comments about the threat from the unvaccinated are ill-conceived and not based on the most recent research. The variants are coming from the vaccinated, which has been proven in countries like Israel where data collection is much more reliable. The idea of segregating a class of people and forcing them against their will to take experimental drugs has already been tried – Germany.
“””The variants are coming from the vaccinated, which has been proven in countries like Israel where data collection is much more reliable.”””
If you mean that variants are produced (by mutation) in the bodies of people who are vaccinated more often those who are unvaccinated, that’s an extraordinary claim that requires more than an assertion.
In other words, what is your source?
There are hypotheses (but probably no proof) about variants originating in the bodies of people who are immunocompromised and remain infected by Covid-19 for a long time.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb2104756
Sounds like no imperial data has been obtained by anyone about covid. Let us all know when you two conclude you are both wrong. The main point was considering the finances the city is receiving, with emphasis on why and what to do with it. Personally, there isn’t enough money to “really” do anything with. Consideration should focus on setting the monies in a trust until there is enough to start a program and maintain it.
I do agree that a person has a “choice” when it comes to doing anything and everything.
Regardless the outcome, it is a person’s choices that makes something good or bad. that being said, if a person chooses to obtain and consume opioids, for whatever reason, then they have to deal with the results. There are alternative medications that do the same thing without the addictions. Ignorance is not an excuse for anything.
So with all the free City money —no more special taxes are needed!
Yeah, genius… that $110,000 a year will solve everything!
Choosing “stupidly” to take an addictive drug is an “infectious disease”?
You and I live on different planets.
Sorry, my fault, pronoun confusion. I should have said “In both cases THE ARGUMENT is about infectious disease affecting everyone, not just the individual who acts stupidly.”
Everyone can be better understood by following the Terry Gross (“Fresh Air”) style of just repeating the damned words instead of assuming that the context of “it” and “they” are obvious. One day I’ll learn.
Let’s fix your statement:
Choosing “stupidly” to take an addictive drug CAUSES the spread of “infectious disease.”
I think the money should go to local law enforcement.
Hasso Hering says:
“Prescribed … to get you hooked.” Really?
Yes. Because the doctors know they are addicting their patients. To believe otherwise is sheer folly:
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/opioids-doctors-prescriptions-payments/
Furthering your logical fallacy, I hastily assert the following generalization – city councilors are corrupt.
I can link thousands of articles as “proof.”
We both agree that your reputation precedes you…