A Kroger Opioid settlement fund check is in Martin County’s future.
The county will be receiving the payment from the Kroger Opioid settlement fund once participating North Carolina counties authorize a resolution approving the second supplemental agreement to eventually accept the Kroger Opioid funds.
Last week, the Martin County Commissioners authorized the resolution approving the second agreement.
“The county has been part of a long ongoing litigation and we are now at the point we are coming up on settlement agreements and there are a couple of step that had to happen to be included in the settlement, one was to pass the resolution,” explained Interim County Manager Ben Eisner.
In 2023, N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein and other attorneys general across the country reached an agreement in principle with The Kroger Co. requiring the grocery chain to pay $1.37 billion to participating state and local governments for its role in the opioid crisis.
“Along with every other county in North Carolina and many municipalities, Martin County has been a party to nationwide multi-district litigation relating to the opioid crisis. A proposed settlement was recently reached with one of the defendants, Kroger Company, for an overall settlement amount of $1.37 billion,” said Eisner. “If the settlement is approved by the court overseeing the multi-district litigation, then North Carolina’s projected share is approximately $40 million of which Martin County’s share would be $79,463.28.”
Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kroger operates 2,719 grocery retail stores under its various banners and divisions in 35 states and the District of Columbia.
In a settlement agreement announced last September, the Kroger Co. would pay up to $1.4 billion over 11 years. The amount includes up to $1.2 billion for state and local governments where it operates, $36 million to Native American tribes and about $177 million to cover lawyers’ fees and costs.
The settlement covers North Carolina and other states where Kroger operates under its own name of the name of a subsidiary, such as Harris Teeter in North Carolina. A maximum of just over $40 million may be coming to North Carolina state and local governments between 2024 and 2034 to address the opioid crisis if all relevant local governments join the settlement.
After North Carolina and other states approved the settlement in the Spring of 2023, Kroger agreed to move to the next stage of the settlement process in which local governments in both North Carolina and other participating states are invited to join the settlement.
To maximize the funds availability to North Carolina state and local governments under the settlement, all 100 counties and all municipalities with a population of 30,000 or over are required to join the settlement by Aug. 12.
Since 2000 the opioid overdose epidemic has taken more than 37,000 North Carolina lives. The number is directly associated with the pandemic compounding the crisis increasing drug misuse, addiction and death.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the total economic burden of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year including healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment and criminal justice involvement, according to the resolution.
The court still needs to approve the second settlement agreement.
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