GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Clay County commissioners agreed to three settlements with companies in a wide-ranging opioid-related lawsuit that originated from the state.

The state has reached agreements with distributors CVS, Teva and Allergan. County Attorney Courtney Grimm said the county is also part of an Ohio-based class action suit against opioid distributors. The three documents commissioners passed unanimously allowed the county to also participate in suits against the three companies.

“These three settlements are driven from a case that the attorney general for the state of Florida brought against these particular three entities, and has resolved that litigation through settlements,” Grimm said. “The state is wanting to allow the different counties and municipalities that entered into the MOU in connection with that other litigation to participate in the same manner in these settlements.”

According to county documents, the state of Florida was allocated approximately $1.6 billion from numerous settlements.

The total includes $484 million from CVS to be paid over 18 years and $329,026,499 from Teva and Allergan to be paid over 11 years. The proposed settlements also include approximately $84 million worth of Narcan, a widely used chemical that stifles the impacts of painkillers, to combat the opioid crisis.

BCC Chairman Wayne Bolla advised commissioners and staff that opioid-related funding would be trickling out over the next 20 years. He wanted to see the programs use the money to fight the opioid crisis.

“I suggested we as a county figure out a program that will utilize this money as efficiently as possible and make sure, as the money dribbles in, it doesn’t disappear and it goes into some mechanism to make that happen,” Bolla said.

In a letter to county and city attorneys across the state, Chief Deputy Attorney General John Guard said the state has worked hard to maximize the settlements.

“We have been able to conclude over $1.6 billion in settlements that will provide much needed monies to both the state, counties and cities,” he said. “The purpose of my memo to you is that I need your help to deliver four more substantial settlements that will benefit all of us.”