Florence council approves joining opioid settlement

The Florence Town Council has voted for the town to be part of an additional national opioid fund settlement.

As part of its consent agenda for its Monday meeting, the council unanimously passed a motion approving the settlement participation agreement forms to share in settlement funds in a proposed national opioid settlement with Kroger Settlement.

Items on the consent agenda are approved or denied with one vote unless a councilor or member of the public asks that an item be singled out for discussion and a separate vote.

Approving the agreement will allow the town to participate in the opioid settlement with Kroger even though it did not directly participate in any lawsuit, a council staff report stated. In September, the Kroger grocery store chain agreed to pay states and counties $1.2 billion to resolve opioid lawsuits.

Approval of the motion will also allow the mayor, interim town manager and town attorney to execute all forms and related documentation in connection with the settlement.

“At this time there is no information regarding the potential amount of the settlement funds or in which fiscal year the funds would be received,” the report noted.

In December 2020, the council entered the state of Arizona’s One Arizona Opioid Settlement memorandum of understanding to participate in the national opioid settlements with opioid distributors McKesson, Amerisource Bergen and Cardinal Health, as well as manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. The national settlement was worth $26 billion.

In February 2023, the council entered into a second One Arizona Opioid Settlement memorandum of understanding to participate in national settlements with Teva, Allergan, Walmart, CVS and Walgreens. That national settlement was worth $20.1 billion.

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org.