MOULTRIE, Ga. — One portion of the massive national opioid lawsuit is nearing a conclusion, and local governments are lining up for their portion of the settlement.

Colquitt County Board of Commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding Tuesday night to participate in the national settlement with pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson and drug distributors McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health. 

More than 3,000 lawsuits against drug makers, distributors and retailers have been grouped together to be adjudicated simultaneously. The suits allege that opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers improperly distributed opioid painkillers that they knew or should have known were addictive and dangerous. A website that focuses on the opioid lawsuits says more than 400,000 people have died from opioid related lawsuits since the FDA approved the drugs in 1995. The Centers for Disease Control said more than 47,000 overdose deaths were linked to opioids in 2019 — that’s 70% of all overdose deaths that year. 

J&J offered $5 billion while the distributors offered $21 billion to resolve their liabilities in all the suits against them.

States have agreed to the settlement, according to County Attorney Lester Castellow, and the judge in the case has divided the settlement among the participating states. Now, the State of Georgia is negotiating with the cities and counties who voted to participate in the suits to determine how much each will get.

“We don’t know exactly how much, but we think the county will get about $200,000,” Castellow told county commissioners before the vote Tuesday.

The Moultrie City Council will vote on an identical memorandum of understanding at its next meeting, Dec. 7, City Manager Pete Dillard said. Dillard said it’s impossible to determine at this time how much money the city will get.

Castellow told the Board of Commissioners the memorandum affected only the one settlement. Other makers, distributors and retailers are involved in other lawsuits, and depending on those suits’ resolution, local governments may get more money in the future.