Board Passes Supervisor Mitchell’s Motion to Advance a Community and Public Health Informed Approach to Distributing Opioid Settlement Funds in LA County

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell’s motion to transition the County to a collaborative stakeholder driven process for the allocation of opioid settlement funds to strengthen transparency in ensuring these critical resources are reached the communities most impacted by the opioid crisis.    

In July 2021, opioid manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceuticals/Johnson & Johnson and distributors McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health agreed to a $26 billion nationwide settlement to resolve more than 3,000 opioid-related lawsuits. California is expected to receive approximately $2.05 billion over 18-years, with Los Angeles County administering its share of the funds in alignment with local priorities.  

In August 2023, the Board approved the County’s Opioid Settlement Funds Spending Plan and directed the Department of Public Health (DPH) to report annually on funded programs. Under today’s approved motion, the Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Abuse Prevention and Control (DPH-SAPC), a nationally recognized leader in substance use disorder prevention and treatment, will convene County departments, subject-matter experts, community stakeholders, and individuals with lived experience to inform funding priorities. 

“By centering public health expertise and community voices, Los Angeles County can maximize the impact of these funds and continue making progress on addressing the devastating impacts of  the opioid epidemic, said Supervisor Mitchell who represents Los Angeles County’s Second District. “These opioid settlement funds represent a rare and critical opportunity to help make people and their families on the lifelong road to recovery and healing investments in prevention, treatment, and harm reduction at a time when other public health funding is increasingly uncertain.”  

The motion also includes the following key actions: 

– Quarterly reviews of available and anticipated opioid settlement funds to account for funding variability; 

– Convening community stakeholders and experts to guide future spending plans; 

– Ensuring a smooth transition to the new collaborative process without disrupting existing services; and 

– Reporting back to the Board within 90 days and annually on outcomes and effectiveness. 

In 2023 alone, more than 105,000 people nationwide died from drug overdoses, nearly 80,000 involving opioids. Locally, the County reported more than 2,000 opioid-related deaths, with disproportionate impacts on Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities. Los Angeles County recorded the largest decline in drug-related overdose deaths and poisonings in its history in 2023 and 2024 reflecting the impact of expanded prevention and harm-reduction strategies. Yet opioid use remains a severe public health crisis. 

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director, Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, Med, shared, “Investments in prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery have led to the most significant decline in drug-related overdose deaths in LA County history. These funds provide the opportunity to build on that progress by continuing a public health approach that strengthens communities disproportionately impacted by overdoses.”  

The new collaborative framework aligns with national best practices, including principles developed by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and adopted by more than 25 states. These principles emphasize saving lives, using evidence-based strategies, investing in youth prevention, centering racial equity, and ensuring fair and transparent decision-making. 

Community organizations on the frontlines of serving residents impacted by the opioid crisis shared their support for the motion:  

 “The people we proudly serve in the Second District are navigating complex challenges, and in the urgency of the opioid crisis, we must rise to meet this reality and prioritize opioid settlement funds. Our continuum of services—which includes harm reduction and treatment—requires sustained investment to save lives and stabilize communities. We applaud Supervisor Mitchell’s leadership in ensuring the transparency and vitality of our substance use harm reduction-to-treatment pathway and centering lived experience in this motion,” said Sam Joo, CEO of the Asian American Drug Abuse Program (AADAP). 
 

“LA County’s progress in prevention and harm reduction is a direct result of evidence-based investment. This motion ensures that our future spending priorities remain rooted in public health expertise and collaborative, community-informed decisions. We must build on the measurable progress LA County has made through public health driven treatment and prevention. This motion is vital because it brings stakeholders to the table, ensuring that substance use funding is guided by evidence and the lived experience of the marginalized communities we serve, shared Latonia Mister Melanin Angels CEO of Melanin Angels.