Governor McKee announced Jan. 25 that Rhode Island received over $114 million in a settlement with three major opioid distributors: McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen.

Mayor Ken Hopkins Chief of Staff Anthony Moretti informed the City Council’s finance committee on Feb. 8 that the state will retain 80 percent of those funds with the remaining 20 percent distributed to the state’s 39 municipalities to be used for opioid abatement purposes. Cranston will receive 3.5 percent of these funds, which is just shy of $1.8 million.

“No amount of money will ever be enough to undo the harm suffered by Rhode Islanders throughout the ongoing opioid epidemic. But through this settlement, we can bring in much-needed funding to the state and municipalities to respond to the challenges brought on by this epidemic, which have grown particularly acute during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Attorney General Peter Neronha in a Jan. 25 announcement.

According to the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH), last year the state saw 361 overdose fatalities due to opioids; the highest number of accidental drug overdoses occurred in 2020 with 384 deaths. RIDOH’s Community-Level Overdose Surveillance Report for Cranston, which was published in May 2021, showed that from the period of October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) had 47 overdose-related (OOD) runs in Cranston. Thirty-four of these individuals identified as male with 13 as female. During this same period, EMS had a count of 493 OOD runs in Providence County `and 682 OOD runs in the state.

Of EMS’s OOD related runs in Cranston, 54 percent of cases were among individuals ages 25 to 44 years of age. This is similar to county and statewide trends which fall at 55 percent. EMS responded to OOD cases each day of the week in Cranston but had more runs on Tuesdays and Fridays. Additionally, 56 percent of runs occurred in private settings while 28 percent happened in a public setting and 16 percent in a semi-private setting.

As for OOD emergency department visits during the October 2020 to March 2021 time frame, 78 percent of visits in the state occurred in Providence County with nine percent occurring in Cranston. The RIDOH report listed that in these emergency department cases, 83 percent of OOD individuals from Cranston identified as white, which is higher than statewide trends that falls at 63 percent.

The report also included that Cranston’s accidental drug overdose deaths came to 89 percent were higher than the statewide average of 73 percent.

In the opioid settlement, Rhode Island will receive the following: $90,833,000 from McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen over the next 18 years; $21,078,000 from Johnson & Johnson over the next nine years and $2,592,000 from McKinsey & Co. over the next five years.

According to Neronha, most of the funds will go toward coordinated, holistic approaches to address the opioid epidemic statewide, guided by input from municipal leaders, public health experts and community representatives.

In a press release following the announcement Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena said, “The opioid crisis is one that I know all too well. As a registered nurse and as Mayor, it is my job and my responsibility to protect the residents of Johnston, and I will do everything in my power to make sure they have access to the services they need.”

“Together, we will beat this epidemic, and I want to thank Governor McKee and Attorney General Neronha for securing this crucial funding to make that possible,” said Polisena.

Warwick Mayor Frank Picozzi said that the City is expected to receive around $122,000 per year over the course of 18 years for a grand total of around $2.2 million.

Picozzi said that they plan on meeting with the police and fire departments along with medical professionals to see what programs they can create.