Baltimore is slated to receive $7.2 million as a part of a state settlement with Walmart over its role in the opioid crisis, city officials announced Thursday.
The city's decision to join the settlement comes as it continues to see a surge in overdose deaths and pursues its own litigation against other manufacturers and distributors of opioids. The funds from the statewide settlement will be distributed over the next 15 years.
"The opioid epidemic, which was directly brought on by corporate greed and irresponsibility, has been disastrous for our great city and has plagued communities across the country,” Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement. “Walmart has reached this settlement in an effort to rectify the damage it has done, and with these funds, our City will be able to invest more in addressing the ongoing problem of opioids here in Baltimore.”
The state is expected to receive a total of $238 million through settlements with Walmart, Walgreens, Teva and Allergan.
Baltimore declined to join the settlements with the other three companies, according to the news release.
The city had also previously refused to join a state settlement with Johnson & Johnson, an opioid manufacturing giant, as well as AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson.
The litigation, totaling $400 million over 18 years, would have brought in less than $3 million annually to the city. Officials instead decided to pursue their own case, and a hearing in the Baltimore City Circuit Court is scheduled for September.
"We chose to go this route, because the settlement offered by Walmart is commensurate with its small market share here, as well as the fact that it hasn't operated in the City since 2016,” City Solicitor Ebony Thompson said in a statement. “So far, we have declined the global settlements so that we can continue to pursue our cases. Those particular settlements offered by the defendants would have paid mere pennies on the dollar for their actions. Instead, we will continue to fight to ensure that the other opioid companies pay their fair share for inflicting this devastation on Baltimore."
Last year, Baltimore received nearly $540,000 from a bankruptcy settlement with Mallinckrodt, bringing the total amount received from the pharmaceutical company to more than $1 million.
City officials have noted that Baltimore has been among the hardest hit by the opioid crisis, and data shows that it comprises a disproportionate share of the state’s overdose deaths.
With the highest overdose death rate in the nation, the city’s death toll comprises about half of all overdose fatalities in Maryland, yet it accounts for only 9.5% of its population.
Baltimore had 182.3 deaths per 100,000 people in the 12-month period ending October 2023, according to an analysis by The Long Haul, using the most recent data from Maryland’s Office of Overdose Response.
With 1,068 total deaths during that period, the number marked a 10.1% increase over the year prior.
For many, opioid addiction began with opioids that were once prescribed by a doctor for pain relief. The impact of the medications marked the beginning of the opioid crisis, which began more than two decades ago.
Lawsuits throughout the nation have since alleged they were over-prescribed and contributed significantly to addiction and overdoses in the U.S.
As the medications became too costly, though, a significant number of people eventually opted for cheaper — and stronger — drugs such as heroin, studies have shown.
Enter fentanyl, an extremely potent synthetic opioid that is generally considered to have spurred a new wave of overdoses beginning in 2013.
The powerful drug, often sold in gel capsules for just a few dollars, prompted the most significant spike in deaths around 2020.
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