Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Settlement money from drug companies as a result of the opioid crisis in New York State is on its way to the City of Buffalo, Erie County and all of Western New York.
"Counties and the five-largest cities will be receiving $197 million," said State Attorney General Letitia James on Tuesday. "I want to be clear that this is just the first of more money to come, and it's only one piece of the up to $1.5 billion settlement that we achieved with some of the distributors and manufacturers of the opioid crisis."
Attorney General James was joined on Tuesday via Zoom by Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, as Western New York will be receiving $12.8 million in funds in 2022 as a result of the settlement with drug companies and manufacturers in December. Erie County will be receiving more than $8.3 million ($1.3 million this month alone), while Buffalo will receive north of $580,000 in settlement money.
Here is how the funds break down after all the money is distributed in 2022:
Western New York total: $12,804,235
- City of Buffalo: $582,427
- Allegany County: $293,856
- Cattaraugus County: $528,364
- Chautauqua County: $1,021,617
- Erie County: $8,339,874
- Niagara County: $2,038,096
"I want to thank all for their tremendous work in the Attorney General's Office for their steadfast determination to ensure that they ended up with a settlement that was fair for the people of our state," said Poloncarz. "The dollars will be used to stop drugs from coming into our community, and to help those that are addicted get off their drugs so they can, once again, live their best lives possible."
"The resources provided from these settlements will be helpful in our efforts to battle opioid addiction in the City of Buffalo," added Brown. "I'm certainly very grateful for the work [of] Attorney General James, the tireless efforts of you and your staff in fighting the large drug companies who created this crisis in our communities in the first place."
In Erie County, the rates of opioid overdoses to start the 2022 calendar year has decreased from where they were at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and into 2021. Poloncarz says the numbers of opioid overdoses peaked to some of their highest levels since 2013 through 2015 when the region faced a major problem with heroin. Now, he says it has become fentanyl that is the major problem facing opioid overdoses, especially with people using cocaine laced with fentanyl.
"We do believe, based on the number of overdoses that we've been seeing in the community, we are doing better than we were in 2020 and early 2021, but we'd like to get back to the point where we were a few years ago, in which we were declining in overdoses and deaths," Poloncarz said. "The reason that happened is because of a unified effort by all on the state level and on the local level to address this in every way possible. We're going to continue working hard to make certain that that older trend continues."
Meanwhile, both Brown and Poloncarz say the settlement money coming their way will go back into the efforts to fight the opioid crisis. The resources provided to them will help boost or further enhance the task forces to not only help curb the rising numbers of overdoses, but also help those families and communities impacted the most by opioids.
"We're going to evaluate that, working with members of the community, working with the county executive to determine the organizations that we're going to support," Mayor Brown said. "There are a number of organizations in the community that are doing tremendous work in providing services to people that are dealing with opioid addiction. We will certainly be looking at those agencies to provide resources."
While many people in Western New York and across New York State that have already lost so much due to the ongoing opioid crisis, Attorney General James believes these settlement funds will go towards the prevention of drug companies deceiving the public, and help end the terrible cycle of hopelessness that opioids have caused.
"Several years ago, I made a promise to families that have been torn apart by this crisis. I promised to hold these companies accountable. I promised to bring some semblance of justice of what was taken from them. And I promised to do everything in my power to turn the tide on this crisis and stop future destruction and pain. These funds will go a long way in supporting those who needed the most," she said.
Hear more from Attorney General James, Mayor Brown and County Executive Poloncarz in the player below:
