FINDLAY — Communities ravaged by America’s opioid epidemic are starting to get their share of a $50 billion pie from legal settlements.

Most of that money comes with a requirement that it be used to address the overdose crisis and prevent more deaths.

But how?

It could mean that places look more like the area around Findlay. Here, conservative Hancock County has built a comprehensive system focused on both treatment and recovery.

“People recover in a community,” said Precia Stuby, the official who heads the county’s addiction and mental health efforts. “We have to build recovery-oriented communities that support individuals.”

It was 2007 when Stuby began hearing from officials about prescription opioids being misused. That was about the same time Jesse Johnson, then 14, was prescribed the painkiller Percocet.

The Findlay native was pregnant when she needed stents put into her kidneys as treatment for infections and kidney stones. After seven months on the opioid medication, she gave birth to a healthy daughter. Then she underwent an operation to remove the stents. The prescriptions stopped and she became sick from withdrawal.

“I remember not even being able to hold my daughter,” said Johnson, now 31. “It just hurt.”

Alcohol, marijuana and, a few years later, cocaine and opioids from the black market helped Johnson ease the pain.

By then, county officials were seeing the area’s fatal opioid overdose toll tick up. The recovery system then included only some outpatient services and Alcoholics Anonymous.

From 1999 through 2020, 131 deaths in the county were attributed to opioids. Across the country, it was more than 500,000. The county’s opioid-linked death rate over that period paralleled the nation’s as the crisis moved from pain pills to heroin to even more potent fentanyl.

But the county took a path that many places did not.

Officials created a plan with the help of the federally funded Addiction Technology Transfer Center that stressed recovery and built upon a local recognition that “this is our family, our friends, our brothers, our sisters,” Stuby said.

The settlement funds from drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies will not be enough for every harm reduction, treatment, recovery and prevention program that might be needed to fight the nation’s opioid epidemic.

But it could be enough to jumpstart major changes to the efforts.

The county’s approach, which echoes experts’ recommendations for use of the settlement money, is that people with the right support can recover from addiction.

Since its implementation began a decade ago, Hancock County has brought in more than $19 million in grants, largely from the federal government. Other funding comes from a county tax levy and the state. Health insurance helps pay for treatment.

Among the steps Hancock County has taken:

There’s evidence that the efforts are helping. After 28 overdose deaths from all drugs last year, Hancock County has three confirmed overdose deaths and five suspected ones so far in 2023.

“It’s not just about how to get people off of opioids, but how do we keep them in remission and increase their stable recovery?” said John F. Kelly, of Harvard Medical School. His research has shown that recovery support services — such as housing, community centers and peer coaching — can help.

It’s worked for Johnson.

After she was released from a hospital following an overdose when she was 27, a peer support worker tracked her down in Findlay’s homeless shelter.

Now 31, she’s still in recovery, has two of her children living with her and regularly sees two others who live with her stepfather.

Earlier this year, she started a peer support job with the Family Resource Center, the same organization that employed the worker who was so instrumental in her own early recovery.

“It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do,” she said, “because I wanted to be that person that reached out to me and then found me at one of the worst times in my life and pulled me together somehow.”

___

Johnson reported from Washington state. AP video journalist Patrick Orsagos also contributed to this article.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration took aim Tuesday at the fentanyl trafficking threat, announcing a series of indictments and sanctions against Chinese companies and executives blamed for importing the chemicals used to make the deadly drug.

Officials described the actions, which include charges against eight Chinese companies accused of advertising, manufacturing and distributing precursor chemicals for synthetic opioids like fentanyl, as the latest effort in their fight against the deadliest overdose crisis in U.S. history. The moves come one day before senior administration officials are set to visit Mexico, whose cartels are part of the global trafficking network, for meetings expected to involve discussion of the drug threat.

“We know that this network includes the cartels’ leaders, their drug traffickers, their money launderers, their clandestine lab operators, their security forces, their weapons suppliers, and their chemical suppliers,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference. “And we know that this global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China.”

Besides charging eight companies, the Justice Department also indicted 12 executives for their alleged roles in drug trafficking. In a coordinated action, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against 28 people and companies — mostly in China but also in Canada — that will cut them off from the U.S. financial system and prohibit anyone in the U.S. from doing business with them. None of those charged has been arrested, but Garland said prosecutors intended to “bring every one of these defendants to justice.”

“It’s the latest step in the rapid scaling up of our work targeting the financial flows that power the global illicit drug trade,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. He said Treasury is also seeking out the friends, family members, and affiliates of the people who benefit from drug sales.

“If you benefit from the proceeds of this illicit activity, we are going to come after your assets,” he said.

Mexico and China are the primary sources for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the U.S., according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking. Nearly all the precursor chemicals that are needed to make fentanyl come from China. And the companies that make the precursors routinely use fake return addresses and mislabel the products in order to avoid being caught by law enforcement.

One of the examples cited by the Justice Department involves a Chinese pharmaceutical technology company that advertised xylazine, a horse tranquilizer that is often mixed to fentanyl to ensure a more potent high, and shipped the chemicals to the U.S. and to Mexico. One of the purchasers in Mexico, officials said, was a drug trafficker associated with the Sinaloa Cartel.

This latest action follows a series of measures taken this year against members of the Sinaloa cartel, cash couriers and cartel fraud schemes.

Republicans have complained, however, that the administration isn’t doing enough to stop fentanyl and the issue is likely to figure prominently in next year’s presidential campaign.

In February, 21 Republican state attorneys general wrote a letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on them to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Last year a group of Republican attorneys general asked the president to declare fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction. No such actions have been taken.

Fentanyl, a powerful opioid, is the deadliest drug in the U.S. today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that drug overdose deaths have increased more than sevenfold from 2015 to 2021.

More than 100,000 deaths a year have been linked to drug overdoses since 2020 and about two-thirds of those are related to fentanyl. The death toll is more than 10 times as many drug deaths as in 1988, at the height of the crack epidemic.

The U.S. has taken a slew of actions to stem the tide of fentanyl coming into the country. Overall, the Biden administration has imposed over 200 sanctions related to the illegal drug trade.

State lawmakers nationwide are responding to the deadliest overdose crisis in U.S. history by pushing harsher penalties for possessing fentanyl.

In a speech at the Family Summit on Fentanyl last week, Garland said the Justice Department was sending out some $345 million in federal funding over the next year, including money to support mentoring for at-risk young people and increase access to the overdose-reversal drug naloxone.

On Capitol Hill, a bipartisan group of legislators out of the Senate Banking and Armed Services committees has introduced legislation that would declare fentanyl trafficking a national emergency and prod Treasury to use its sanctions authority to quell the proliferation of the drug in the U.S.

It would also impose reporting requirements and enable the president to confiscate sanctioned property of fentanyl traffickers to use for law enforcement efforts.

__

Associated Press reporter Lindsay Whitehurst in Wilmington, Delaware, contributed to this report.

The group played out a fake scenario of a mass overdose event, then walked through the processes of how local partners would respond to such an event, the release said.

Exercising the emergency through conversation helps local partners prepare to respond to a sudden increase in opioid overdoses, the release said.

The group discussed ways to improve the response and better prepare for an emergency event.

Possible improvements include streamlining data collection and reporting, as well as communicating to first responders and community members more quickly and accurately.

“In September, we’ll meet again to continue the conversation,” said Mark Adams, Lorain County Public Health commissioner in the release. “Practicing specific emergency situations helps all emergency responders offer the best possible protection to Lorain County.”

Working together to address the opioid crisis across sectors helps prevent and reduce opioid overdose deaths, Adams said.

This exercise focused on opioid overdoses because of the widespread availability of fentanyl, which is a dangerous synthetic opioid that you can’t see, smell or taste.

Street drugs and any drugs not prescribed to you may contain deadly amounts of fentanyl – including fake pills sold as Adderall, Xanax and oxycodone, the release said.

Fentanyl is being mixed with street drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin, according to the release.

Help curb the opioid crisis:

• Carry naloxone to help stop and reverse an opioid overdose — order and get trained for free.

• Have a kit mailed to you in one to three business days, order online at bit.ly/3phnx1X in English or at bit.ly/40w2LLL in Spanish.

• Pick up a kit at Lorain County Public Health, 9880 Murray Ridge Road in Elyria, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., weekdays.

• Find another naloxone pick up location at bit.ly/3M0cvb3.

• Get naloxone rescue kits for your business – visit LorainCountyHealth.com/opioids.

• Keep prescription medications safe – order a free medication safe and/or a disposal bag at LorainCountyHealth.com/opioids.

If you use drugs:

• Never use alone. Call 1-800-484-3731. An operator will stay on the line and call emergency services if you don’t respond.

• Visit the Harm Reduction Clinic at The Nord Center from 1-5 p.m., Monday and Friday; and at 3150 Clifton Ave. in Lorain from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Exchange syringes, pick up fentanyl testing strips, and get support.

• When you’re ready to ask for help, call 1-800-888-6161 (hotline for the Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery Services Board).

• Hear the voices of three local people in recovery at LorainCountyHealth.com/opioids.

Agencies that attended this tabletop exercise included representatives from Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital, Elyria Police Department, Let’s Get Real, Lorain County Coroner, Lorain County Correctional Institute, Lorain County Drug Task Force, Lorain County Overdose Response Team, Mental Health Addiction and Recovery Services Board of Lorain County (MHARS), Mercy Health, Ohio Department of Health, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, South Lorain County Ambulance District, The LCADA Way and University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center.

Visit LorainCountyHealth.com to learn how health and safety are priorities for Lorain County Public Health, or call 440-322-6367.

In their unanimous ruling, the justices rejected the OneOhio Recovery Foundation’s claim that it was a private nonprofit corporation and therefore not subject to the state’s open public records law. The justices found the foundation “misstates its function,” noting it’s not responsible for providing treatment, education or prevention services, but rather giving settlement money to those who do provide such services.

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Harm Reduction Ohio, a drug policy reform group that has sought documents related to the panel’s board meetings and “numerous” committee meetings involving “hiring, finances, bylaws and other matters.” The reform group also said its president was not allowed to attend the panel’s initial meeting in May 2022, even though officials had said it would operate as if it were subject to Ohio’s open meetings law.

The 29-member panel consists of state representatives, local government leaders, addiction treatment experts and others from around the state. It will decide how to distribute more than $440 million of an $808 million settlement reached last year with the nation’s three largest pharmaceutical distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.

OneOhio, which also will seek long-term solutions to the opioid epidemic, has maintained that it’s trying to follow what the settlement mandated — that it be a private nonprofit organization — and that openly saying it’s a public body would jeopardize that status.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president said Thursday that his country does not produce or consume fentanyl, despite enormous evidence to the contrary.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador appeared to depict the synthetic opioid epidemic largely as a U.S. problem, and said the United States should use family values to fight drug addiction.

His statement came during a visit to Mexico by Liz Sherwood-Randall, the White House homeland security adviser, to discuss the fentanyl crisis. It also comes amid calls by some U.S. Republicans to use the U.S. military to attack drug labs in Mexico.

The Mexican government has acknowledged in the past that fentanyl is produced at labs in Mexico using precursor chemicals imported from China. Fentanyl has been blamed for about 70,000 opioid deaths per year in the United States.

“Here, we do not produce fentanyl, and we do not have consumption of fentanyl,” López Obrador said. “Why don’t they (the United States) take care of their problem of social decay?”

He went on to recite a list of reasons why Americans might be turning to fentanyl, including single-parent families, parents who kick grown children out of their houses and people who put elderly relatives in old-age homes “and visit them once a year.”

His statement contrasted sharply with a Thursday tweet from U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar saying a meeting between Sherwood-Randall and Mexico’s attorney general was meant “to enhance security cooperation and fight against the scourge of fentanyl to better protect our two nations.”

There is little debate among U.S. and even Mexican officials that almost all the fentanyl consumed in the United States is produced and processed in Mexico.

In February, the Mexican army announced it seized more than a half million fentanyl pills in what it called the largest synthetic drug lab found to date. The army said the outdoor lab was discovered in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state.

In the same city in 2021, the army raided a lab that it said probably made about 70 million of the blue fentanyl pills every month for the Sinaloa cartel.

“The president is lying,” said Mexican security analyst David Saucedo. “The Mexican cartels, above all the CJNG ( Jalisco New Generation Cartel) and the Sinaloa Cartel have learned to manufacture it.”

“They themselves buy the precursor chemicals, set up laboratories to produce fentanyl and distribute it to cities in the United States and sell it,” Saucedo said. “Little by little they have begun to build a monopoly on fentanyl, because the Mexican cartels are present along the whole chain of production and sales.”

While it is true that fentanyl consumption appears to remain low in Mexico and largely confined to northern border areas, that may be because the Mexican government is so bad at detecting it. A 2019 study in the border city of Tijuana showed that 93% of samples of methamphetamines and heroin there contained some fentanyl.

Saucedo said fentanyl exports to the U.S. are so lucrative for Mexican cartels that they previously had not seen a need to develop a domestic market for the drug.

“It is true that fentanyl consumption in Mexico is marginal, but some mid-level cartels have begun selling it in border cities and in big cities like Leon, Mexico City and Monterrey,” Saucedo said.

On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham held a news conference, saying he wanted “to unleash the fury and might of the U.S. against these cartels.”

“The second step that we will be engaging in is give the military the authority to go after these organizations wherever they exist,” Graham said. “Not to invade Mexico. Not to shoot Mexican airplanes down. But to destroy drug labs that are poisoning Americans.”

López Obrador said Mexico would not accept such threats, calling them “an insult to Mexico and a lack of respect for our independence and sovereignty.”

López threatened to start a campaign in the United States asking Mexicans and Hispanics who live there not to vote for Republicans.

“We are going to issue a call not to vote for that party, because they are inhuman and interventionist,” López Obrador said.

Security analyst Alejandro Hope said López Obrador appeared trapped between his own “hugs, not bullets” strategy of not confronting cartels — which plays well among his supporters — and increasing U.S. pressure, especially from Republicans. Portraying himself as the defender of Mexico’s sovereignty has been an easy out for López Obrador in the past.

Hope said the Mexican president may not realize how much the issue of declaring Mexican cartels terrorist organizations could become a conservative rallying cry in 2024, just as former President Donald Trump’s call for a border wall was in 2016.

“It’s the wall, version 2024,” said Hope. “He (López Obrador) believes everybody is as willing to make deals as Trump, but many of these (Republicans) are much more ideological.”

“The problem is that it puts the Biden administration in a terrible position, it puts it between the Republicans’ intransigence and López Obrador’s intransigence,” Hope said.

Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s top diplomat, wrote in his Twitter account Thursday that proposals like Graham’s would be “catastrophic for bilateral anti-drug cooperation.”

“They (Republicans) know that the fentanyl epidemic did not originate in Mexico, but in the United States,” Ebrard wrote. “They know that more work is being done against fentanyl now than ever.”

Mexicans, both in government and outside it, are clearly afraid of fentanyl use increasing in Mexico. A civic group has launched a campaign of painting walls with the slogan “Mxsinfentanilo” — “Mexico without fentanyl” — and López Obrador has launched a series of anti-drug TV ads.

But once again, López Obrador’s government appears to view fentanyl as a U.S. problem.

In the ads launched in November, the Mexican government used videos of homeless people and open-air drug users in Philadelphia’s embattled Kensington neighborhood to try to scare young people away from drugs.

“Have naloxone with you if you use drugs or if you have a loved one who uses,” said Mark Adams, Lorain County Public Health commissioner.

Street drugs and any drugs not prescribed to you may contain deadly amounts of fentanyl – fake pills sold as Adderall, Xanax and oxycodone, according to the release.

Fentanyl is being mixed with all street drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin, the release said.

Also, fentanyl is dangerous — it cannot be seen, smelled or tasted.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, the release said.

The health department is urging people to their part to help curb the opioid crisis by carrying naloxone to help stop and reverse an opioid overdose — order and get trained for free; finding naloxone pick-up locations in Lorain County at bit.ly/3M0cvb3; having a kit mailed to you in one to three business days, order online at bit.ly/3phnx1X; and picking up a kit at Lorain County Public Health at 9880 Murray Ridge Road in Elyria.

Also, the health department encourages people to get naloxone rescue kits for their businesses, keep prescription medications safe and order a free medication safe and/or a disposal bag.

If you use drugs, never use alone, the release said.

Call 1-800-484-3731 and an operator will stay on the line and call emergency services if you don’t respond, the release said.

Visit the Harm Reduction Clinic at The Nord Center. Exchange syringes, pick up fentanyl testing strips and get support.

When you’re ready to ask for help, call 800-888-6161 (hotline for the Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery Services Board).

Hear the voices of three local people in recovery, the release said.

Visit LorainCountyHealth.com to learn how health and safety are priorities for Lorain County Public Health, or call 440-322-6367.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland has taken action to end sentencing disparities that have imposed harsher penalties for different forms of cocaine and worsened racial inequity in the U.S. justice system.

For decades federal law has imposed harsher sentences for crack cocaine even though it isn’t scientifically different from powder cocaine, creating “unwarranted racial disparities,” Garland wrote in a memo Friday to federal prosecutors. “They are two forms of the same drug, with powder readily convertible into crack cocaine.”

With changes to the law stalled in Congress, Garland instructed prosecutors in nonviolent, low-level cases to file charges that avoid the mandatory minimum sentences that are triggered for smaller amounts of rock cocaine.

Civil rights leaders and advocates for criminal justice change applauded Garland, though they said his move will not become permanent without action from Congress.

The Rev. Al Sharpton led marches in the 1990s against the laws he called “unfair and racially tinged” and applauded the Justice Department direction that takes effect within 30 days.

“This was not only a major prosecutorial and sentencing decision – it is a major civil rights decision,” he said in a statement. “The racial disparities of this policy have ruined homes and futures for over a generation.”

At one point, federal law treated a single gram of crack the same as 100 grams of powder cocaine. Congress shrunk that gap in 2010 but did not completely close it. A bill to end the disparity passed the House last year, but stalled in the Senate.

“This has been one of the policies that has sent thousands and thousands of predominantly Black men to the federal prison system,” said Janos Marton, vice-president of political strategy with the group Dream.org. “And that’s been devastating for communities and for families.”

While he welcomed the change in prosecution practices, he pointed out that unless Congress acts, it could be temporary. The bill that passed the House with bipartisan support last year would also be retroactive to apply to people already convicted under the law passed in 1986.

But the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, said Garland’s move jeopardizes legislative talks on the issue. Grassley said the attorney general’s “baffling and misguided” instructions amount to asking prosecutors to disregard current law. “This is the wrong decision for the Justice Department,” Garland said in a statement.

The mandatory-minimum policies came as the use of illicit drugs, including crack cocaine in the late 1980s, was accompanied by an alarming spike in homicides and other violent crimes nationwide.

The act was passed shortly after an NBA draftee died of a cocaine-induced heart attack. It imposed mandatory federal sentences of 20 years to life in prison for violating drug laws and made sentences for possession and sale of crack rocks harsher than those for powder cocaine.

The Black incarceration rate in America exploded after the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 it went into effect. It went from about 600 per 100,000 people in 1970 to 1,808 in 2000. In the same timespan, the rate for the Latino population grew from 208 per 100,000 people to 615, while the white incarceration rate grew from 103 per 100,000 people to 242.

Friday’s announcement reflects the ways that years of advocacy have pushed a shift away from the war on drugs tactics that took a heavy toll on marginalized groups and drove up the nation’s incarceration rates without an accompanying investment in other services to rebuild communities, said Rashad Robinson, president Color Of Change.

“It is a recognition these laws were intended to target Black people and Black communities and were never intended to give communities the type of support and investments they need,” he said.

The event which took place Oct. 27 saw TV personality Dr. Drew Pinsky, commonly known as “Dr. Drew” as keynote speaker. He focused on his experiences with working with people going through addiction recovery as part of the annual event.

According to organizer Joe Matuscak, “Dr. Drew was absolutely wonderful. He continued to show his knowledge in the subject and even opened the floor up to the audience to interact which is something we haven’t had before.”

Dr. Drew, is known for his celebrity work on handling addiction from appearing on reality show “Sixteen and Pregnant” to running his own show titled “Celebrity Rehab.”

As for the choice in keynote speaker, Matuscak said they chose Dr. Drew because of “his work and knowledge in the field. He is someone that the audience knows and has so much understanding in the subject.”

The dinner saw the hall at Embassy Suites in Independence filled with over 425 guests.

“All of the funds raised will go back into LCADA Way from covering insurance costs for people who don’t have it to a myriad of funds going back into our The Key women’s facility,” said Matuscak.

The Key women’s facility is a house dedicated to helping women in recovery including providing daycare services to children under 5.

“These funds will go back in to get diapers, clothes and more for these children,” said Matuscak.

Plans for next year’s Pearls of Wisdom dinner have already been underway since August with the list narrowed down to three potential speakers. Matuscak is also looking at the possibility to move to another location in case the attendance numbers grow once more.

LCADA Way is devoted to caring for individuals and families struggling with alcohol and drug addiction with an approach centered on leadership, compassion, awareness, dedication and advocacy. Founded in 1981, the nonprofit has continued to raise awareness and support through a multitude of services including their Pearls of Wisdom annual dinner benefit.

The two largest U.S. pharmacy chains, CVS Health and Walgreen Co., announced agreements in principle Wednesday to pay about $5 billion each to settle lawsuits nationwide over the toll of opioids, and a lawyer said Walmart, a third pharmacy behemoth, is in discussions for a deal.

The prospective settlements are part of a shift in the legal landscape surrounding the opioid epidemic. Instead of suspense over whether companies in the drug industry would be held to account through trials or settlements, the big question is now how their money will be used and whether it will make a difference in fighting a crisis that has only intensified.

The deals, if completed, would end thousands of lawsuits in which governments claimed pharmacies filled prescriptions they should have flagged as inappropriate. With settlements already proposed or finalized between some of the biggest drugmakers and distribution companies, the recent developments could be the among the last multibillion-dollar settlements to be announced.

They also would bring the total value of all settlements to more than $50 billion, with most of it required to be used by state and local governments to combat opioids, which have been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the last two decades.

“It’s one more culprit of the overdose crisis that is having to pay their dues,” said Courtney Gary-Allen, organizing director of the Maine Recovery Advocacy Project. “Average Americans have been paying it for a long time.”

Gary-Allen, who is a member of a council that will help determine how Maine uses its opioid settlement funds, said more money to address the problem will help. In her state, she said, the needs include more beds for medical detox and for treatment.

Neither Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based CVS nor Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens is admitting wrongdoing.

Under the tentative plans, CVS would pay $4.9 billion to local governments and about $130 million to Native American tribes over a decade. Walgreens would pay $4.8 billion to governments and $155 million to tribes over 15 years. The exact amount depends on how many governments join the deals.

Both noted they have been addressing the crisis through such measures as starting educational programs and installing safe disposal units for drugs in stores and police departments. And both said the settlements would allow them to help while staying focused on their business.

“We are pleased to resolve these longstanding claims and putting them behind us is in the best interest of all parties, as well as our customers, colleagues and shareholders,” Thomas Moriarty, CVS chief policy officer and general counsel, said in a statement.

Walgreens said in a statement: “As one of the largest pharmacy chains in the nation, we remain committed to being a part of the solution, and this settlement framework will allow us to keep our focus on the health and wellbeing of our customers and patients, while making positive contributions to address the opioid crisis,” Walgreens said in a statement.

Paul Geller, a lawyer for governments in the lawsuits, said talks with Walmart continue. Walmart representatives would not comment Wednesday.

“These agreements will be the first resolutions reached with pharmacy chains and will equip communities across the country with the much-needed tools to fight back against this epidemic and bring about tangible, positive change,” lawyers for local governments said in a statement. “In addition to payments totaling billions of dollars, these companies have committed to making significant improvements to their dispensing practices to help reduce addiction moving forward.”

If these settlements are completed, they would leave mostly smaller drug industry players as defendants in lawsuits. Just this week, a group of mostly regional pharmacy chains sent to a judge, who is overseeing federal litigation, information about claims they face, a possible precursor to scheduling trials or mediating settlements involving some of those firms.

“One by one, we are holding every player in the addiction industry accountable for the millions of lives lost or devastated by the opioid epidemic,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement. “The companies that helped to create and fuel this crisis must commit to changing their businesses practices, and to providing the resources needed for treatment, prevention and recovery.”

Most of the nation’s opioid overdose deaths initially involved prescription drugs. As governments, doctors and companies took steps to make them harder to abuse and obtain, people addicted to them increasingly switched to heroin, which proved more deadly.

In recent years, opioid deaths have soared to record levels around 80,000 a year. Most of those deaths involve illicitly produced version of the powerful lab-made drug fentanyl, which is appearing throughout the U.S. supply of illegal drugs.

Only a handful of opioid settlements have had bigger dollar figures than the CVS plan. Distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson this year finalized a combined settlement worth $21 billion, and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson finalized a $5 billion deal.

Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and members of the Sackler family who own the company have a proposed settlement that would involve up to $6 billion in cash, plus the value of the company, which would be turned into a new entity with its profits used to combat the epidemic. That plan has been put on hold by a court.

___

Associated Press writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

Emergency departments, first responders and the Lorain County Coroner’s Office provided this data, the release said.

This rapid increase included multiple drug overdoses, including fatalities, according to the release.

So far in 2022 in Lorain County, 82 people have died from a drug overdose; 71 of those deaths were due to opioids, the release said.

Fentanyl is being mixed with all street drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin, according to the release.

Fentanyl is a dangerous synthetic opioid that you can’t see, smell or taste.

Local and national officials confirm that brightly colored rainbow fentanyl has become more common, the release said.

“If you are using drugs that are not from a pharmacy, have naloxone with you, and never use alone,” said Mark Adams, Lorain County Public Health commissioner.

Lorain County Public Health recommends the following to reduce risk of death:

• Never use alone. Call 1-800-484-3731 or visit neverusealone.com.

• Carry naloxone. Pick up nearby or order by mail at bit.ly/3AyWeo0.

• Test drugs for fentanyl, exchange syringes, and get support at 3150 Clifton Ave. in Lorain. Harm Reduction Clinic details at  nordcenter.org/supportservices/harm-reduction-clinic/.

• Get help with your addiction. Call 1-800-888-6161 or visit MHARSLC.org.