Salt Lake County will receive about $57 million over the next 16 years as part of a $266 million payout to Utah, after four defendants in a yearslong opioid lawsuit decided to settle with governments.
Under the partial settlement, 85% of the total must go to education and other programs that address the effects of opioid addiction, something Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said had plagued the country.
The settlement stems from a 2018 lawsuit the county filed against 19 drug makers and distributors. Only four of the defendants — manufacturer Johnson and Johnson, and distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen — agreed to settle.
“Today’s settlement,” Gill said, “is a partial down payment on that carnage that they’ve left behind.”
Utah’s most populous county remains in an active lawsuit with other defendants. When county officials announced the suit in 2018, they said the opioid crisis had cost thousands of lives and millions of dollars.
In February, the settling companies agreed to shell out $26 billion nationally to fend off further litigation from governments. Salt Lake County was one of 26 counties in Utah to file suit.
Of the national settlement, $266 million will go to Utah, with half of it going to the state and half going to counties.
— The Salt Lake Tribune will update this developing story.
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