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To compensate for their role in the opioid epidemic, drug manufacturers, distributors, and retailers are paying billions of dollars to states, counties, and cities across the country. San Benito County, still grappling with opioid-related overdoses, has received more than $240,000 and is using it to fund prevention and treatment programs.
San Benito County Behavioral Health Director Dana Edgull told BenitoLink this money is mostly going to finance personnel from the San Benito County Public Health Department and the operation of the San Benito County Opioid Task Force, a coalition of more than 15 local agencies and organizations that joined efforts to battle the opioid crisis.
“We cannot afford to lose any more lives to opioid overdose” Edgull said. “It is imperative that we do everything that we can as a community to prevent and treat substance use disorders. These funds will help us to have funding over the next 10 to 20 years, and we hope that by having continuous interventions, we will be able to make a significant impact.”
From data on KFF Health News, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and other sources, BenitoLink has learned that San Benito County received more than $243,000 from two different opioid settlements.
Most of that money (96%) comes from agreements with major opioid distributors and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. In 2021, the three largest distributors—McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen— settled for $21 billion to resolve all opioid litigation brought by jurisdictions across the country. That same year, Janssen agreed to pay $5 billion for its role as a manufacturer. San Benito County received just over $148,000 from the distributors and $85,000 from Janssen, for a total of more than $233,000.
The remaining funds come from a settlement with Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, a manufacturer and marketer of opioids. After filing for bankruptcy in 2020, that company agreed to a $1.7 billion settlement to resolve 3,000 lawsuits for using misleading tactics to sell highly addictive opioids. From this, San Benito County has gotten almost $10,000.
Director Edgull told BenitoLink that the county has spent $170,000 of the more than $240,000 it has received. She said the funds are being directed toward three priorities identified by the San Benito County Behavioral Health Department, the Public Health Department, and the Opioid Task Force.
The first priority supports the Opioid Task Force and community-based activities for education, prevention, and intervention efforts. The second covers the costs of detox and treatment of opioid use disorder not covered by Medi-Cal. The third focuses on a prevention program for young people—the county’s most affected group in the opioid epidemic.
“While opioid-related overdose impacts individuals most in age ranges 35-44 on a national level, in our county, that is a relatively young population. We are losing people at younger ages,” Edgull said. “In 2022, San Benito County’s highest cause of premature death was due to overdose.”
With 11 deaths each, 2022 and 2023 were the deadliest years for opioid overdoses in San Benito county, according to the most recent data from the Opioid Task Force. Although opioid-related deaths declined in 2024—most linked to fentanyl use— the number of calls to emergency services for treating overdose rose from 55 in 2022 and 43 in 2023 to 67 in 2024.
“While our numbers of lives lost are not as high as in some communities,” Edgull said, “it is estimated that San Benito County lost 800 years of life in 2022.”
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